Grave Guarding

"Young Master! Young Master! What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?" Seeing Liu Feng tremble incessantly as if he were having an epileptic fit, Steward Bard grew somewhat nervous.

"Oh! I'm fine. By the way, Steward Bard, how many of these stones does our estate have?" Hearing Steward Bard's question, Liu Feng finally returned from his boundless joy. He barely suppressed his excitement and asked with a smile.

"Not many. Since it's all this kind of stone now, mining has stopped, and we're preparing to choose another site. We've only mined around a thousand pieces so far!" Though he had no idea why this eldest young master was so concerned about Gold-Quenching Stone, which was utterly useless, Steward Bard still explained patiently.

"A thousand pieces, a hundred Gold Coins each—that's a hundred thousand Gold Coins! A hundred thousand! Hehehe!" Liu Feng kept chuckling foolishly. After muttering to himself for quite some time, he finally returned to normal, tucked the Gold-Quenching Stone safely into his pocket, and said with a smile, "All right, it's nothing. Let's go. We'll pay our respects to the ancestors at the graveyard first." As he spoke, he continued to grin stupidly and hurried ahead.

"Alas! It seems this young master isn't merely unable to cultivate. His mind... his mind doesn't seem quite normal either!" Steward Bard sighed pityingly and quickly followed after him.

The graveyard covered a vast area, at least a thousand meters in every direction. It was surrounded by towering trees whose names Liu Feng did not know, blocking out the glaring sunlight and casting patches of light upon the ground. They flickered endlessly in the breeze, making the place seem somewhat gloomy and silent.

There were many gravestones within. Unlike other nobles, who placed their ancestors' spirit tablets in the clan ancestral hall, all the Palister Family ancestors' tombs stood out in the open. Though numerous, they were arranged in neat order, left to weather wind and rain. They looked somewhat old, yet they were kept exceptionally clean. The stone used for the grave markers was also extraordinarily special. Even those dating back several thousand years still stood proudly upright, radiating an awe-inspiring majesty that displayed the Palister Family's unique glory from those bygone days.

The moment he entered the graveyard, an immensely powerful aura enveloped Liu Feng's heart. In an instant, all distracting thoughts were cast aside, leaving only boundless admiration and reverence.

What puzzled Liu Feng, however, was that among these ancestral tombs stood a small stone house not far away. It appeared as though someone lived there, and this arrangement of the living dwelling alongside the dead felt deeply strange.

Apparently afraid that this useless young master with a questionable mind might loudly ask about it here, Steward Bard hurried over and explained softly, "That small house has been there for a long time. They say an elder lives inside. Do not disturb them under any circumstances. The family has issued a strict prohibition: no one is allowed to disturb that elder's peace."

An elder? Liu Feng froze again, only to discover that he had no memory whatsoever concerning this. He could not help growing even more curious. But since the family had issued such a prohibition, he did not dare ask further. He nodded and began the ancestor-worship ceremony.

After a string of cumbersome rituals, it was already noon. Steward Bard had departed, leaving Liu Feng alone in the graveyard. The Palister Family had an unwritten rule: during the annual sacrificial rites, the family member responsible for the ceremony had to remain in the graveyard for a full day and night. This was known as Grave Guarding, meant to accompany the lonely spirits of the ancestors and let them know their descendants had not forgotten them.

Liu Feng could accept this custom well enough. He had always been fairly bold, and in his previous life he had spent nights alone in graveyards, so he was not afraid. There was only one thing that depressed him terribly.

During this day and night of Grave Guarding, to show respect and sincerity toward the ancestors, the grave guard could not eat any food—not even take a sip of water. Liu Feng had not eaten breakfast, and now that it was noon, he was so hungry his intestines felt as though they were about to stick together. Yet he could only stare at the sacrificial food and drool helplessly.

If he could not see food, perhaps hunger would have been easier to endure. But the more he stared at it with his eyes wide open, the more overwhelming his hunger surged forth. In the end, he simply sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, entered inner vision, and began cultivating.

The Eight Realms of Divine Soul technique had one particularly great benefit. Perhaps because it absorbed energy, cultivating with it could dispel the sensation of hunger. At this moment, it was exactly what he needed.

As the Soul Fusion realm technique slowly began circulating, the energy within his Qi Sea once again flowed into the Crystal Core. Liu Feng's hunger gradually faded away, and he immersed himself even more deeply in cultivation.

As time passed, the energy within the Crystal Core seemed to have gathered to its peak, yet there was still no sign of it changing and entering the fourth realm, Soul Formation. It seemed that the third and fourth realms of this technique were separated by another hurdle. Advancement could not be achieved through cultivation alone; it appeared that an important opportunity was also needed.

Liu Feng had always wanted to enter the Soul Formation realm and see what rank his strength could reach on this continent. But he now understood that this was not something to rush. Sometimes, the more haste, the less speed. He could only stop reluctantly.

Time passed extremely quickly during cultivation. The sky was now completely dark, and the entire afternoon had slipped by without his noticing.

Liu Feng moved his somewhat stiff body, only to accidentally touch something hard in his pocket. His heart stirred, and he pulled it out in one swift motion. It was precisely that Gold-Quenching Stone no one dared buy.

After moving about a little to loosen up, Liu Feng sat down again, tightly gripping the Gold-Quenching Stone in his hand as he activated the Soul Fusion realm technique.

This was the method Liu Feng had thought of after seeing the Gold-Quenching Stone—the money-making method seemingly tailor-made for him.

The Eight Realms of Divine Soul technique claimed it could seize all energy between heaven and earth and turn it to its own use. The Gold-Quenching Stone also contained energy. Though this energy was mixed and impure, making it difficult for others to remove, it was no problem at all for Liu Feng. He only needed to use the technique to draw it out directly. That way, not only could the Crystal Core absorb energy, but the Gold-Quenching Stone could also be turned back into a usable auxiliary forging material.

A piece of Gold-Quenching Stone was worth around a hundred Gold Coins, and that had been its price back when there had still been techniques capable of removing its impure energy. After so many years, Liu Feng fully believed that if he removed the energy from these Gold-Quenching Stones and sold them now, their price would definitely be even higher. After all, this was a material people had wanted to use but could not use for more than a century. If it appeared on the market again, it would certainly cause a sensation. How could its price possibly be low?

And even at a hundred Gold Coins per piece, the thousand pieces in the estate amounted to a full hundred thousand Gold Coins! Moreover, from what Steward Bard had said, there seemed to be a large quantity of Gold-Quenching Stone remaining in the mining area, only left unmined. Then... then how much money would that be?

At that thought, Liu Feng once more could not control his excitement. In his eyes, this lustrous stone was no longer a stone at all, but a massive, dazzling block of gold.

Barely suppressing his excitement, Liu Feng began absorbing it slowly.

After all, the Eight Realms of Divine Soul technique talked a big game, but whether it could truly absorb this energy was still unknown...