Tiandao Academy Investigates Dragons

The one person and four foxes held onto the rope, which pulled them up into the sky. After a moment, they landed on a cliff. The cliff face was sharp as a blade on one side, while the other side sloped gently, with a stream trickling down.

This stream met other streams flowing from different peaks at the foot of the mountain, forming a river that flowed east to west, towards the valley.

Su Yun had never been here before and dared not move. He repeatedly asked, "What do you see? What do you see?"

He had never been here before.

For a blind person, every blind person has a map in their mind. This map is only illuminated within the scope of their own life; all other areas are dark and chaotic.

The Dragon Burial Mound was treacherous and difficult to climb. This was Su Yun's first time here. Although it was a clear autumn afternoon and still early, his mind was filled with darkness and the unknown.

He strained his eyes, but he could see nothing.

He could only sense a primordial beast lurking in the unknown darkness, ferocious and terrifying.

He was filled with dread and asked again several times, but no one answered him.

Su Yun asked a few more times. After a moment, Flower Fox was the first to recover and muttered, "Little Yun, we saw a dragon... there really is a dragon here!"

Hearing his voice, Su Yun's heart finally settled.

Flower Fox meticulously described the geography of the Dragon Burial Mound, helping Su Yun quickly construct a mental map of the area. The other fox demons listened quietly, not interrupting. If Flower Fox missed anything, Hu Buping would inevitably add a few words.

This was a habit developed over many years.

Ever since Flower Fox and Su Yun became classmates, Flower Fox would often describe the geography around Tianmen Town to Su Yun and then take him there, allowing Su Yun to become familiar with the surroundings and avoid getting lost.

Their friendship was the strongest.

The man and the fox spoke and listened, and soon Su Yun had a general understanding of the Dragon Burial Mound's geography, with a rough outline forming in his mind.

There was indeed a dragon in the Dragon Burial Mound. He hadn't sensed it wrong when he felt a primordial beast lurking in the darkness earlier.

The Dragon Burial Mound lived up to its name, with a dragon buried there. However, it was also misleading, as there was no dragon's tomb here.

The Dragon Burial Mound was a long, earthen slope, two to three zhang high and about a hundred feet long, covered in trees and thorns.

The dragon that fell from the sky back then had crawled here from Fallen Dragon Valley, only to die from its severe injuries. The nearby residents had likely just buried it hastily without building a tomb.

After an unknown period of weathering, the dragon's bones had begun to emerge from the earthen slope, becoming more exposed.

Especially the dragon's skull, which was almost entirely exposed and immense. The eye sockets of the skull even had trees growing within them that would require two people to embrace.

Although the Dragon Burial Mound was covered in dense forest, strangely, there were no birds or beasts, not even a single insect to be seen!

Walking here gave one a creepy feeling, as if a ferociously evil primordial beast might leap out at any moment and rip them to shreds.

"There are houses next to the Dragon Burial Mound."

Flower Fox continued to describe the scenery of the Dragon Burial Mound, saying, "The houses are made of wood and stone. There are two buildings, one with seven rooms and another with three rooms on the east side of the Dragon Burial Mound, and one with four rooms on the west side. The houses seem to have been abandoned for a long time; they are very dilapidated, and the wood is almost completely rotted. There are also some stone tablets on the mountain, on the surrounding mountains. Some of the stone tablets have fallen over."

"Thank you, Hua Erge."

Su Yun formed a mental image of these seven rooms and turned his head, saying, "This place is deserted. Why are there houses here?"

Flower Fox was also quite puzzled, "Let alone deserted by people, there are no animal tracks to be seen. This dragon's bones still exude such a fierce aura, so why would anyone choose to live here?"

Su Yun's heart stirred. This dead dragon couldn't possibly be buried next to someone's village, so the houses must have been built later.

And building them near the Dragon Burial Mound, other than guarding the tomb, there could only be one other reason.

"Someone wanted to steal the dragon corpse. But the dragon corpse is too large, and they couldn't excavate it immediately, so they built houses here."

Su Yun pondered, "The people nearby had no relation to this dragon, so they naturally wouldn't guard its tomb. Therefore, they could only have come to steal the dragon corpse."

Hu Buping quickly interjected, "The dragon's bones are clearly here, why didn't they steal them?"

"Perhaps because it was too large, they couldn't move it. Or perhaps, when they were excavating the dragon corpse, they suddenly died."

Flower Fox mused, "After all, Di Gong said that the dragon's spirit flew out and saved the entire village. After the dragon died, its spirit was likely still guarding its corpse."

Su Yun nodded. Flower Fox's guess was very reasonable.

They cautiously walked down the slope towards the Dragon Burial Mound. Su Yun followed Flower Fox carefully, trying to keep his steps steady, and said, "Let's not try to dig out the dragon bones, nor take anything with us. We'll just go and look inside those houses. I heard Mister Shuijing say that the spirits of some powerful beings can transform into ghosts and gods, and they are very ferocious. However, ghosts fear sunlight and won't appear during the day. Therefore, we must leave before sunset!"

The four fox demons exchanged glances. Qingqiu Yue and Li Xiaofan quickly covered Hu Buping's mouth. Hu Buping let out a few muffled sounds, thinking, The ghosts and gods in Tianmen Town are even fiercer than dragons, and they appear even during the day!

The one person and four foxes arrived at the foot of the Dragon Burial Mound and entered the first house.

This house had four rooms. On the ground were scattered bones and accessories left after clothes had rotted into dust.

Su Yun squatted down and felt around, pondering, "Judging by the state of the fallen bones, they must have suddenly encountered an unexpected change and rushed to escape from the house. However, the pursuing entity was too fast, and they all died before they could escape the house."

Flower Fox also made a discovery, "Their backs, ribs, and spines are broken. The cuts are diagonal, as if made by extremely sharp weapons from behind them. There were three such weapons, striking simultaneously, with almost parallel wounds. This person was cut into four pieces..."

Su Yun felt it and said, "It wasn't a weapon; the wounds were made by claws."

Flower Fox chuckled, "Little Yun, how could a monster with incredibly sharp, large claws appear in the house with these people? Even though this house is large, it couldn't possibly fit such a behemoth! Unless..."

"Unless it had no physical form."

Su Yun said, "Spirits have no physical form. If they were dragon claws, then it's possible."

Flower Fox frowned and said, "Let's look inside the house!"

To their surprise, the rooms were filled with desks, with scattered brushes, inkstones, paper, and ink on them. It didn't look like the room of tomb robbers, but rather the room of a well-read Great Scholar!

It's a shame that the writing brushes here have all rotted, and the paper has long since turned to mud.

"They didn't come to steal the dragon corpse!"

Su Yun suddenly said, "They are scholars from Investigating Things to Gain Knowledge!"

Flower Fox was stunned for a moment, then realized, "Yes! When Mister Shuijing taught us Crocodile Dragon's Roar, he took us to Crocodile Dragon Pool to observe the crocodile dragons, study their forms, habits, and actions. He used the Great Furnace Transformation cultivation technique to stimulate our Origin Energy and blood to simulate crocodile dragons, and to visualize them with our consciousness. Mister Shuijing said this is called Investigating Things to Gain Knowledge, to gain knowledge by observing, experimenting, and studying the essence and principles of things."

The other three little foxes had also heard Mister Shuijing's lectures and immediately recalled.

Qingqiu Yue quickly said, "Mister Shuijing said that official schools with financial resources often organize scholars to find the divine beasts they need to visualize when learning a certain cultivation technique or spiritual power, so they can observe and study them. Could it be that some scholars came to observe this dragon?"

Li Xiaofan looked at the pile of bones on the ground and frowned, "Did they come from Shuofang City? How did they die here?"

Su Yun felt a jade token under the rotten clothes of a skeleton. The jade token had writing on it. He felt it over carefully and said, "They came from an official school called Tiandao Academy."

The fox demons crowded around. They saw that although the jade token had mud on it, it was pure white and unstained, clearly carved from valuable jade.

The front of the jade token had the words "Tiandao Academy," surrounded by cloud and thunder patterns. The back was carved with a half-unfurled scroll, which was very exquisite.

"Is there an official school in Shuofang City called Tiandao Academy? That's a grand name."

Flower Fox said, "The jade token is of good quality. Perhaps it can be sold for a few Five Zhu Coins. Let's find more! We'll definitely need money when we enter the city in the future!"

The fox demons searched around and found several more jade tokens, all from Tiandao Academy, but they were all damaged. Only the one Su Yun found was intact.

They didn't find anything else, so they left and headed to the second house.

That house was on the other side of the dragon's tail. The two houses, one at the head and one at the tail, should have been responsible for observing the dragon from different angles.

A few hundred paces from the dragon's tail was a sunken valley. Flower Fox poked its head in and saw huge claw marks on both walls of the valley!

Each claw mark dug several inches deep into the stone wall and was several dozen feet long. The stone looked as if it had been cut by the sharpest knife, which was shocking.

Their guess was correct. The dragon that fell from the sky landed in Fallen Dragon Valley. It struggled and crawled all the way here with its last strength before it died.

"What could have injured such a divine dragon and caused it to die here?" Flower Fox murmured.

They arrived outside the second house. Just as they were about to go in, they suddenly saw a man in black walking towards them, limping. The four foxes cried out in unison, each taking a defensive stance.

"Senior Snake."

Su Yun's heart stirred slightly, and he bowed. "Senior invited us to observe last night. We observed for a long time and gained a lot. Thank you for your care, Senior."

Flower Fox was greatly surprised and whispered, "Xiao Yun, are you saying he is The Whole Village Eats? Why has he changed his appearance?"