Zhang Rongfang looked up and saw a firework, like a sky full of Starry Sky, slowly explode and fade away in the sky above the east of Tanyang East City.
"This looks like the distress fireworks from Great Yang Temple?" He didn't know much about Great Yang Temple.
All that is known is that in the entire Tanyang, Great Yang Temple is the number one folk force, with many experts within it, but most of them are reserved, spending their days chanting scriptures and worshipping Buddha, and rarely causing trouble.
Now, however, no one knows what happened.
'But whatever it is, it has nothing to do with me.'
Ignoring it, Zhang Rongfang practiced all the moves of the Returning Spring Purifying Time Talisman Classic, and also familiarized himself with Eagle Claw Skill, Dragon Snake Movement Technique, and so on.
After rinsing off, I went to bed.
The intelligence from Golden Wing Tower arrived quickly, reaching Zhang Rongfang the following night.
Above is an address, the address of a tomb Statue Fragment were unearthed.
'Chicken Neck Forest, Big Foot Village, Tongxu County.'
Taking advantage of the arrival of a new deputy captain, Zhang Rongfang immediately took leave and headed straight to this address.
He is now quite curious about the Statue.
This thing can affect the Attribute Panel and make it react. There must be a deep secret hidden behind it.
There's also the Great Ling.
With the level of ancient technology available today, managing such a vast territory should have been quite inconvenient.
Even with carrier pigeons or other means of communication, there is a limit to the distance that a message can travel.
However, he may gradually learn about these secrets when he reaches a higher position in the future.
The key now is to quickly uncover the secrets of the Attribute Panel while he applies to transfer back to the Dao Palace.
Tongxu County is one of the Seven Counties near Tanyang.
Previously, due to the uprising and unrest, the Official Road were blocked, making passage impossible.
Now that the Righteous Army had fled and the roads were open again, Zhang Rongfang found the County Town in just one day.
He didn't stay in the County Town for long. After finding out the exact address, he asked a local to lead the way and headed straight for his destination.
In this era, without mobile phone map navigation, the only thing you can rely on is locals to guide you.
After two days of searching.
Finally, in a desolate mountain near Big Foot Village, Zhang Rongfang found the so-called Chicken Neck Forest.
Chicken Neck Forest gets its name from its shape; viewed from above, it resembles a long, thin chicken neck.
The area is densely wooded, preventing direct sunlight from reaching it.
The area is filled with a chaotic array of graves, many of which have been dug up by grave robbers.
"Young master, this is the Chicken Neck Forest you're looking for. A lot of people came here before, digging for things, saying there were antiques, and they ran away with a lot of things."
Now fewer people are digging, and it's become quiet. I guess everything's been dug up.
The guide was a dark-skinned farmer. He was very brave.
After leading Zhang Rongfang to the edge of the woods, they stopped.
"I won't go inside. Young master, you are skilled and brave, so please go in and take a look. But I must warn you, there are wolves in this place after dark, so please remember to come out before dark. My home is in Big Foot Village. When you come, just find someone and say you are looking for me, Zhao Baidou!"
"Thank you." Zhang Rongfang nodded and handed over the agreed-upon five taels of silver.
Zhao Baidou immediately beamed with joy, took the money, and counted it.
"By the way, young master, people occasionally come and go in this forest. They are all tough and fierce-looking guys. Ah, I'm not talking about you! Anyway, you must be very careful."
"Understood," Zhang Rongfang replied. "You can go back now."
He carried the bundle of dry rations and strode into the woods.
Chicken Neck Forest is mostly Cypress.
The branches and leaves of the cypress trees are like layers of fine netting, densely packed and overlapping, blocking out the already dim sunlight.
Before even getting close, Zhang Rongfang smell a faint scent of Cypress.
Within the Woodland, mounds of earth rose and fell, some intact, others broken open, with the coffins inside scattered in pieces.
Most of the graves do not have tombstones.
In the dark forest, dappled sunlight scattered among the bushes, grass, and grave mounds, creating an unusually chaotic effect.
Zhang Rongfang tightened his bundle, stepped forward, and strode quickly through the graves.
According to the information we received on our way here, the Statue was unearthed in a large burial pit deep within the Chicken Neck Forest.
After passing through a series of graves, Zhang Rongfang soon came into view a large, noticeably sunken pit.
"Stop!" A rough voice suddenly came from the side.
A short, stocky man, about 1.7 meters tall, carrying Iron Fork and wearing light leather armor, emerged from behind a large tree.
"You're not allowed to get close here. Go away," the man said to Zhang Rongfang in an unfriendly tone.
"Not allowed to approach?" Zhang Rongfang sized up the other person; judging from his equipment, he didn't seem to be a Government Office official.
Government Office officials often possess a unique aura, a natural sense of superiority that comes with their Official Messenger over everyone else.
In the Great Ling, the Ling Ting is the strongest, and no force or individual can defy its will.
Therefore, Government Office officials who have served for a longer period of time will develop this kind of temperament.
But the person in front of me didn't.
Judging from his equipment, he seems more like a bodyguard of a wealthy merchant.
Soldiers often prefer to wear leather armor with iron plates in between, which provides extremely high protection.
He also particularly likes wearing Helmet and gloves.
But the only piece of leather armor this man had was worth something; the rest of his clothes were worn and old.
On his lower back, one could vaguely see some miscellaneous items, such as a compass, Flying Claw, and filter mask.
This person is clearly a tomb raider.
"Who are you? Is this grave yours?" Zhang Rongfang frowned.
"It's neither mine nor yours," the man chuckled twice. "But we claimed this place first. So..."
Before he could finish speaking, he saw that Zhang Rongfang completely ignored him and continued walking towards the grave pit.
"Huh!? You don't understand what I'm saying, do you??"
He picked up the Iron Fork and stabbed it into Zhang Rongfang's thigh.
Unexpectedly, before the fork was even halfway out, Zhang Rongfang reached out with his right palm and struck him squarely in the chest with lightning speed.
Bang!
The man suffered excruciating chest pain, coughed up blood, and collapsed unconscious on the spot.
Zhang Rongfang withdrew his hand, calmly stepped over the man, and walked into the grave pit.
Suddenly he paused, took out a black cloth from his pocket, and tied it to his face.
Then continue forward.
Not far away, another tall, thin man emerged from the edge of the grave, holding something that looked like Long Clamp.
The man was slightly taken aback when he saw him.
"Isn't Huang Chong supposed to be guarding the entrance today? Who are you?!"
Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Rongfang suddenly rushed forward and flashed past him.
Thud! The man's body flew out as if hit by a truck, crashing into a tree trunk with a cracking sound, the sound of bones breaking echoing through the air.
He fainted without uttering a sound.
Whether they're dead or not, nobody cares. They're just some tomb raiders.
Zhang Rongfang withdrew his hand, calmly walked to the edge of the grave pit, and looked down.
The entire burial pit is more than 20 meters long and wide, and several entrance holes have been dug out on the surface.
He immediately went down through an entrance that had been dug out.
The tomb is not large, with only three Stone Chamber and two Stone Hall.
Several stone figures of varying sizes are displayed Stone Hall.
The ground was littered with debris, mostly jumbled pieces.
Zhang Rongfang looked around and quickly found a spot against the wall in a Stone Hall.
There are traces of statues of Statue placed there.
After searching the ground around the location, he quickly found two more Bronze Parts that had rolled onto the ground and were mixed with stones, dust, and mud.
There are three parts in total, which, when put together, form a complete head of the Statue.
"It's done. I didn't expect it to go so smoothly."
He examined it carefully and found that the head of the Statue, along with the broken Golden Bead, perfectly matched the missing part in front.
The reason the head of the Statue wasn't moved seemed to be that a large chunk of black mud had solidified on its surface, covering most of it.
It's so unrecognizable that you almost can't tell the difference.
Zhang Rongfang searched for a long time before discovering the clue.
The fragments of the Golden Bead fell into a crack in the stone slab on the ground.
After taking out the three fragments, Zhang Rongfang carefully searched the surrounding area again to make sure nothing was missed before leaving.
He had only walked halfway when his gaze swept across the Stone Hall and caught sight of an inscription that appeared to be a message.
"What's this?"
He stopped and approached to examine it closely.
The characters on the inscription are slightly different from the current Ling Script, and seem to be in an ancient style.
It's incomplete and disjointed; a lot of content must have been destroyed.
The remaining legible parts, from top to bottom, read: 'Three Radiance Clear Dew, Fate-Bound Break Limit.'
Yin-Yang Exchange, the Night Dragon Swallowing Heaven.
"Eight Directions Pay Homage, Four Seas Converge Town."
'The Great Dao Returns to One, Nine Qi Condense Manifest.'
This appears to be a surviving sacrificial text.
The only change is that a new prompt appears in the Attribute Panel.
' Intuition Warning there seems to be some kind of peculiar layer beneath this inscription. Perhaps...'
Zhang Rongfang already had a vague feeling that something was wrong, and now that the Attribute Panel had made it clear, he immediately understood that the location of the inscription was slightly different from the rest of the wall.
Without further hesitation, he picked up a stone and began hammering at the inscription.
Soon, the wall cracked, and a pale yellow cloth fell out.
Zhang Rongfang didn't reach out to pick it up, but instead gently lifted the piece of yellow cloth with his boot.
The cloth was covered with densely packed, tiny characters.
The handwriting appeared to be written in a different, unique script that Zhang Rongfang couldn't recognize at all.
He gently spread his feet out, about to examine it closely.
"I never expected that staying here all this time would yield such a harvest?"
Suddenly, a woman's voice came from the entrance of the tomb.
Zhang Rongfang raised his head and looked in that direction.
A black-haired woman in dark green leather armor was holding a short sword and looking at them with a look of surprise.
"I thought staying behind would be a tough job, but I never expected such a pleasant surprise! This is truly a blessing from heaven."
The woman twirled her short sword deftly, her gaze fixed on Zhang Rongfang.
"You were able to discover such a hidden arrangement; you must be a remnant of the Secret Teaching! Too bad you ran into me."
Whoosh! Before she finished speaking, she charged forward, her boots stomping three times on the ground.
The short sword drew a brilliant arc in mid-air, piercing towards Zhang Rongfang's chest.
Boom!!
The short sword flew through the air, and the woman's body was sent flying like a tattered sack, crashing into the stone wall, rolling to the ground, and fainting.
Zhang Rongfang expressionlessly withdrew his leg, picked up the yellow cloth through his sleeve, walked forward, lifted the woman with one hand, and left the tomb.