Ancient Tomb Entrance!

Tang Fei and Little Fatty rode horses. Tang Fei rode a small horse, while Little Fatty rode a large one.

There was no helping it—the small horse could not carry Little Fatty.

The horses had been ridden here by people from the Flame Shrine. Little Fatty rode a tall, powerful horse, while Tang Fei rode Copper Coin Assassin's small horse. It looked gaunt, but it was surprisingly fast when it ran, no weaker than Little Fatty's horse.

There were still some cars left over from before the Great Cataclysm on Old Earth, but they were all private collectibles owned by important figures. Automobile factories had long vanished, and repairs and maintenance required relatively specialized personnel. Besides, cars needed fuel or electricity.

Whether fuel or electricity, both were scarce resources on Old Earth.

It was rather amusing. Humanity had fought desperately over energy, and after the fighting ended—

People were gone, and energy had become even scarcer.

To find that ancient tomb, they had taken remote mountain paths this time. The roads had fallen into disrepair over the years, overgrown everywhere with weeds and thorns. Cars would have had a hard time traveling through them, making cattle and horses—the oldest means of transport—far more practical.

Of course, they did not have a car.

They did have a flying car.

On New Star.

At the thought of the flying car, Tang Fei could not help thinking of Phoenix.

She should have made it home safely by now, right? The flying car should have been packed up and was already being transported to Old Earth, right?

If they had a flying car, he and Little Fatty would have reached their destination three days ago. They might even have made a round trip that same day. Why would they need to be jolted half to death on horseback?

Little Fatty complained that his butt had been rubbed raw. Mainly because his butt was too tender. Tang Fei's own butt was not as tender as Phoenix's.

"Big Brother, where is the ancient tomb? We've been wandering around these mountains for two days already." Little Fatty wiped the sweat from his face and asked.

The blazing sun hung overhead. Though the one doing the work was the big black horse beneath him, Little Fatty looked even more exhausted than the horse.

"I'm looking for it," Tang Fei said. "Look at the map. There's a little red dot here. It should be Xiuxue. Phoenix must have marked it. This is the great tomb they came to Old Earth to find."

Little Fatty scratched his head and said, "Big Brother, I can't read it."

"Fine." Tang Fei had nearly overestimated Little Fatty's intelligence.

It would be nice if Phoenix were here. He and Phoenix had a rapport unlike that of ordinary people. One look was enough for them to understand what the other wanted to do.

Huh? Why was he thinking about Phoenix again?

It was all her fault for telling him to "miss me" before she left. If he did not think about her a dozen or twenty times a day, it made him seem like some especially heartless bastard.

But what was there to miss? She was a beautiful woman he would never see again for the rest of his life.

"The area we're in is called Shennongjia. That ancient tomb is somewhere among the countless mountains of Shennongjia." Tang Fei stared at the map and said, "The tomb is in a crescent-shaped valley. Do you see the crescent valley?"

"No." Little Fatty shook his head. "I'm looking for fruit in the trees."

"..."

When Tang Fei and Little Fatty had set out, they had brought some dried meat and rations, but they had eaten them all on the first day.

There was no helping it. Little Fatty could eat far too much.

Fortunately, Tang Fei was an excellent hunter, so they had not lacked fresh ingredients along the way.

But Little Fatty was like a bottomless pit. He had just gnawed through more than half a rabbit leg, and in the blink of an eye, he was already looking for fruit in the trees as a snack.

Seeing that Tang Fei had fallen silent, Little Fatty took the initiative to find a topic. "Big Brother, did Sister Phoenix give you this map?"

"Of course." Tang Fei nodded.

The map had been pulled out from inside the pillow, hidden together with the Xiuxue blade.

Since the Xiuxue blade had been given to him, then by the same logic, the map had been given to him too.

Tang Fei was not highly educated, but he was very good at making his own logic sound convincing.

"Sister Phoenix said they came to find this great tomb, and someone wanted to claim it for themselves, which was why they attacked her." Little Fatty looked at Tang Fei. "Since those people have already found the tomb, do you think they might have emptied it out already? What if we get there and can't find anything at all?"

Tang Fei narrowed his eyes and smiled. "My view is the exact opposite of yours. Phoenix did come for this tomb, but in some people's eyes, leaving Phoenix on Old Earth forever was more important than that tomb."

"It would be nice if Sister Phoenix stayed on Old Earth too. She's been back for several days now, and I miss her." Little Fatty said.

"The kind of staying I mean isn't the same as the kind you mean. They wanted to kill your Sister Phoenix," Tang Fei explained.

Little Fatty grew angry. "Why would they want to hurt Sister Phoenix? Sister Phoenix is so kind, and she treats people well."

"In this world, many things have nothing to do with whether someone is good or bad. Within three feet, everything is a calculation of interests. Only those who have nothing can experience true purity."

"Oh." Little Fatty nodded as if he half understood. "Someone wanted to steal Sister Phoenix's interests."

"That was more or less what I meant," Tang Fei said.

"Sister Phoenix said it was a monarch's great tomb. Do you think there'll be a lot of gold buried inside?"

Tang Fei laughed. "She only said it was a monarch's great tomb casually. She had not even gone inside, so how could she know what kind of tomb it was?"

"How do you know she didn't go in?"

"I asked her."

"... Sister Phoenix lies too?" Little Fatty looked disappointed. He had never expected Sister Phoenix to lie, and to lie to him at that.

"Doesn't Old Man teach us every day that women are all liars, and the prettier they are, the better they are at lying? Don't forget that. It's important. Sometimes it can even cost you your life."

"Sister Phoenix really is beautiful." Little Fatty acknowledged Phoenix's looks. "But Sister Phoenix didn't lie to you."

"Why not?"

"Because she can't fool you." Little Fatty looked immensely proud.

Big Brother is smart. If Big Brother is smart, then I'm smart too.

"That's true." Tang Fei nodded. "Since those people wanted to take action against Phoenix, they would not have had the mind to keep looking for the tomb. If they acted before entering the tomb, then they would have even less reason to continue searching for its location."

"Why?" Little Fatty asked.

"If you went to peep at Widow Li bathing and got caught red-handed, would you stay there instead of running?"

"I'd run." Little Fatty chuckled. "Only an idiot wouldn't run."

After a pause, he added, "Brother, I didn't peep at Widow Li bathing."

"I know. I was just making an analogy." Tang Fei comforted Little Fatty. "You know too, your Sister Phoenix is the Princess of the Phoenix Empire. Her status is rather special. Those people wanted to kill her, but she escaped. Would they still dare to stay behind openly and look for the ancient tomb? They would have vanished without a trace long ago."

There was another point Tang Fei did not mention. It would not have helped even if he told Little Fatty.

Given Phoenix's status, and the taste and discernment he had noticed during their time together, anything that caught her eye would naturally be extraordinary.

So what kind of great tomb was this, exactly? That was worth looking forward to.

Tang Fei led Little Fatty around the mountains for another hour or so. Both men and horses were exhausted and could barely keep going.

Tang Fei jumped down from the small horse and said, "Let's find somewhere to rest for a while. Tombs of this level have gone unfound for centuries, even millennia. How could we find one in just a few days?"

Tang Fei had a pretty good mindset about it.

Finding it would naturally be better. If they did not, that was fine too. They had the map, so they might as well take a swing and see whether there was anything there.

Neither of them could read mountains and observe qi, nor could they trace dragon veins and locate acupoints. Relying solely on luck, how could it be so easy?

The books said that heartbroken men liked to travel around to clear their heads. He would treat this trip as a "journey of spiritual redemption."

"Alright!" Little Fatty happily jumped off the big black horse. With a thud, the big black horse dropped to its knees and collapsed to the ground. Then it opened its mouth and panted heavily. The past few days had truly worn it out.

Tang Fei glanced at Little Fatty. "Little Fatty, you should lose some weight too."

"Okay, Big Brother." Little Fatty readily agreed, then pulled out the roasted field frog he had not finished that morning and began crunching through it.

"That was supposed to be dinner. I was planning to heat it up again. Forget it, forget it. Eat up." Tang Fei could not bear the pitiful sight of Little Fatty drooling over food.

"Thank you, Big Brother." Little Fatty happily ate, tore off a frog leg, and handed it to Tang Fei. "Brother, you eat too."

"I'm not hungry," Tang Fei said. "I'll look at the map a little longer."

"Okay." Little Fatty stuffed the frog leg into his own mouth.

Reading made people sleepy. Looking at a map made them even sleepier.

Tang Fei yawned as he looked, then drifted off to sleep as he looked.

Little Fatty was sleepy too, but he had not finished his field frog yet, so he had to hold on a little longer.

When Tang Fei opened his eyes, the sky had already gone completely dark.

The night was cool as water, and the bright moon filled the sky.

A rare spell of fine weather on Old Earth.

It would be nice if Phoenix were here, Tang Fei thought.

She would definitely like a night like this.

Slap!

Tang Fei smacked himself across the face.

"At such an important time, how could you be thinking about women? Neglecting your proper business."

The slap startled Little Fatty awake. He sprang up from the ground and asked worriedly, "Big Brother, what happened? Is something wrong?"

"Nothing. A mosquito bit me," Tang Fei said.

"Oh." Only then did Little Fatty relax. "My fault. I should have sat closer to you. Then the mosquitoes would only bite me and not you."

Little Fatty had thick flesh and plenty of blood. Mosquitoes could feast to their hearts' content on him.

When he had been very young, Little Fatty discovered that he had this special ability. Every night at dinner, he deliberately sat beside Tang Fei.

That way, all the mosquitoes would circle around him alone.

By himself, Little Fatty protected Tang Fei and Old Man, and fed all the mosquitoes in Hate Mountain District.

"You weren't asleep?" Tang Fei asked.

"No." Little Fatty shook his head. "Didn't you say that when we're away from home, even when we sleep, we have to stay alert at all times? One eye open and one eye closed."

"I was afraid that if I fell asleep, both eyes would close. So I didn't dare sleep."

"You fool." Tang Fei scolded irritably. "Are you hungry?"

"I'm hungry." Little Fatty nodded.

Big Brother had slept too long. He had gone several hours without eating.

"Wait here. I'll find us something to eat," Tang Fei said.

"Alright!" Little Fatty said happily. He knew Big Brother never returned empty-handed.

Tang Fei found a lake in the valley and decided to change things up by roasting some fish.

He crouched by the lake for a while. After seeing small fish, shrimp, and all kinds of tiny organisms swimming within it, he determined that the water was safe to drink.

He scooped up a mouthful of lake water. It tasted sweet and fresh.

So he lay on the ground, lowered his mouth, and drank his fill.

Then he suddenly raised his head.

He looked at the moon in the sky, then at the moon in the lake.

He leaped to his feet, turned, and ran toward where Little Fatty was. He shouted, "Little Fatty! Little Fatty, I know where the ancient tomb is! I found the entrance!"