Vermilion Plume Sword

Two days later, Liang Zhaohuang took the newly drawn Five-Colored Light Shield Talismans out of the county town and returned to Liangyuan Village, where the Liang Family was based.

The reason Liang Zhaohuang insisted on delivering the talismans home himself was, on the one hand, because he was the strongest, but on the other, because he planned to visit the annihilated Zhu Family of Vermilion Dragon Manor on the way back.

A cultivation family that had been wiped out—though it was only a humble clan outside the ninth rank, and had already been ransacked several times by the Black Wind Bandits, as well as the county commandant, patrol inspectors, and others who pursued them; in the past few days, there had probably even been other nearby cultivation families and Rogue Cultivators exploring and plundering it over and over.

Presumably, nothing of value would be left.

Even so, Liang Zhaohuang still intended to take a look. What he relied on was the Five Elements Dharma Eye.

He wanted to try and see whether he could use the Five Elements Dharma Eye to pick up a leak among the ruins of the Zhu Family estate.

In any case, Vermilion Dragon Manor was not far from the county town, and it happened to lie in the direction of his return to Liangyuan Village. At most, he would only need to make a slight detour of a dozen or so li along the way.

With a Wind-Walking Talisman stuck to his leg, Liang Zhaohuang moved very quickly, arriving at Vermilion Dragon Manor in less than four hours.

The Zhu Family was on the eastern side of Vermilion Dragon Manor, built against a small mountain. It had once been a layered array of pavilions and towers like tiers of steps, but now it had already become a stretch of ruins.

As Liang Zhaohuang walked through it, he could see signs of flooding and fire, split earth and wind-scoured wreckage in many places. One could imagine how fierce the battle had been at the time.

There were no corpses in the ruins, whether of the Zhu Family cultivators or of the Black Wind Bandits. He did not know who had cleaned them up, nor who had gotten the magic tools, spirit stones, and other treasures from those bodies.

In fact, at this moment, the Zhu Family ruins not only had no corpses—they were simply "clean" to an excessive degree.

He could not even see a slightly intact table, chair, brick, stone, beam, or pillar. They had all been cleared away.

In this cultivation world, there had never been any shortage of "vultures" who profited from disaster and the dead.

In truth, how was Liang Zhaohuang at this moment not also a "vulture"?

Walking through the excessively "clean" ruins, five-colored Buddha light filled Liang Zhaohuang's eyes. He activated the Five Elements Dharma Eye and carefully observed his surroundings, examining the flow of the five elements' power in the ruins, searching for anything unusual, hoping to pick up a leak.

However, after walking through the entire Zhu Family ruins, although Liang Zhaohuang saw a few places where the power of the five elements was in disorder, all of them were effects left behind by the previous battle. He discovered nothing special.

"Those 'vultures' before me really did scrape it clean."

Cursing inwardly, Liang Zhaohuang raised his head and saw the small mountain the Zhu Family had been built against. Something suddenly stirred in his heart.

The Zhu Family had been built against the mountain. The mountain was named Zhulong Mountain, but rumor had it that this mountain had originally been called Pig Cage Mountain. After the Zhu Family established their clan here and occupied Pig Cage Mountain, they changed its name to Zhulong Mountain.

Zhulong Mountain was not very large. Its highest point was only a little over thirty zhang, and it covered an area of only about a thousand zhang in radius.

On the shaded side of Zhulong Mountain stood a cemetery: the "ancestral mausoleum" of the humble Zhu Family. The Zhu Family clansmen who had died through the generations were all buried there.

Although the Zhu Family had now been exterminated, this "ancestral mausoleum" had not been disturbed by anyone.

Although one could imagine that there were bound to be some burial treasures in the tombs of this "ancestral mausoleum," those "vultures" who profited from disaster and the dead had no intention of laying hands on the Zhu Family Ancestral Mausoleum.

It had been around eight thousand years since the founding of the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty. Some rules, some bottom lines, still existed. Digging up someone's ancestral graves was absolutely something that provoked public outrage.

After all, those who controlled the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty were themselves cultivation families of various ranks. Which family did not have an ancestral mausoleum?

And which family dared guarantee that theirs would never decline one day?

Once these cultivation families declined, if someone dug up their ancestral graves, how could they possibly accept it?

Therefore, in the Great Jin Immortal Dynasty, robbing someone's ancestral mausoleum and digging up ancestral graves was something that was severely cracked down on. Once it happened, it would inevitably be pursued to the death.

In Liangyuan Village, where the Liang Family was located, there were three "cemeteries," all ancestral mausoleums left behind by the cultivation families that had occupied Liangyuan Village before the Liang Family. Although they were already desolate and overgrown, the tombs within were basically all preserved intact, without the slightest sign of being robbed or damaged.

Liang Zhaohuang came to the Zhu Family Ancestral Mausoleum now, of course, not because he wanted to play "gold-touching commandant." He had simply gained nothing in the Zhu Family ruins and came over to take a look with the thought of trying it in passing.

In the end, this look really did let him discover something different.

In one corner of the Zhu Family Ancestral Mausoleum, Liang Zhaohuang's Five Elements Dharma Eye saw signs of unusual earth-element spiritual power fluctuations.

These spiritual power fluctuations were extremely hidden and faint. Even an ordinary cultivator with keen senses might not necessarily discover anything after careful observation.

But this trace of fluctuation, under Liang Zhaohuang's Five Elements Dharma Eye, was like ripples in water—exceptionally obvious.

"Deciphering" things based on the traces of Five Elements spiritual power circulation was something Liang Zhaohuang had long since become skilled at over the years; he had quite a wealth of experience.

Moreover, the Zhu Family was, after all, only a humble clan that had not entered the ninth rank. Their abilities were limited. The focus of this "secret place" they had arranged had all been placed on "concealment." Once discovered, the difficulty of breaking it was not actually very great.

Especially since Liang Zhaohuang's Five Elements Dharma Eye could also see clearly the path of the earth-element spiritual power flowing within, he quickly found several key nodes.

He sent out several streaks of magic power, striking those key nodes and directly preventing the normal circulation of the earth-element spiritual power within. The earth-element spiritual power immediately fell into chaos and erupted.

Liang Zhaohuang only felt the ground beneath his feet tremble slightly, and a muffled sound came over. Immediately afterward, the ground before him where the earth-element spiritual power had been flowing directly collapsed, revealing an opening.

Joy appeared on Liang Zhaohuang's face. At last, there was some gain!

But before the smile on his face had fully bloomed, a streak of scarlet light shot out from within the opening, arriving right before his eyes.

"Fuck!"

Liang Zhaohuang was shocked to the core. Fortunately, his reaction was not slow. The Five Lights Bracelet on his arm instantly turned, blooming with yellow light, and an earthen shield immediately blocked in front of him.

But the scarlet light shooting toward him struck the earthen shield and pierced through it as easily as a knife cutting tofu.

However, with that earthen shield blocking it for a moment, Liang Zhaohuang gained more time to react. He immediately activated the Five-Colored Light Shield Talisman.

A light shield flowing with a five-colored halo protected him. The scarlet light struck the Five-Colored Light Shield, stirring up ripple after ripple, but in the end, it failed to break through the Five-Colored Light Shield.

As a result, the scarlet light that had shot over now revealed its original form.

It was a "magic sword" about one chi long, scarlet-red from end to end, shaped like a plume!

"The Vermilion Plume Sword!"

"It's someone from the Zhu Family!"

The Vermilion Plume Sword was the Zhu Family's signature magic tool. Almost every Zhu Family cultivator would refine a Vermilion Plume Sword. The moment Liang Zhaohuang saw this "magic sword," he immediately reacted: the one hiding in this secret cave was precisely a survivor of the Zhu Family, which had been annihilated.