Ancient Tomb Entrance!

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

It couldn't be helped; the small horse couldn't carry Little Fatty.

The horses were brought by people from the Flame Shrine. Little Fatty rode a tall, sturdy horse, while Tang Fei rode the small horse belonging to the Copper Coin Assassin. It looked scrawny, but it was surprisingly fast, no slower than Little Fatty's horse.

On Old Earth, there were still some cars left from before the Great Cataclysm, but those were private collections of important figures. Car factories had long since disappeared, and repairs and maintenance required relatively professional personnel. Moreover, cars needed fuel, either oil or electricity.

Whether oil or electricity, these were scarce resources on Old Earth.

It was almost comical: humans fought fiercely over energy, and after the fighting...

The people were gone, and energy was even more scarce.

To find the ancient tomb, they were taking remote mountain paths this time. The roads were in disrepair, overgrown with weeds and thorns everywhere. Cars were very inconvenient to drive, much less so than the oldest modes of transportation like oxen and horses.

Of course, they didn't have cars.

However, there was a flying car, on the New Star.

Thinking of the flying car, Tang Fei couldn't help but think of the Phoenix.

She should have arrived home safely by now, right? The flying car should have been packed and on its way to Old Earth, right?

If they had a flying car, he and Little Fatty would have reached their destination three days ago. They might have even made a round trip that same day, instead of enduring this bone-jarring ride on horseback.

Little Fatty whined that his butt was chafing, mainly because his butt was too tender. His own butt... wasn't as tender as the Phoenix's.

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

The sun beat down fiercely. Although it was the big black horse beneath him doing the work, Little Fatty looked more exhausted than the horse.

"I'm looking," Tang Fei replied. "Look at the map; there's a red dot here. It should be Xiuxue... it should be marked by the Phoenix. This is where they want to find the great tomb on their trip to Old Earth."

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

"Alright." Tang Fei had overestimated Little Fatty's intelligence.

He thought, If only the Phoenix were here. He and the Phoenix had an extraordinary understanding; a single glance was enough for them to know what the other wanted.

Huh, why am I thinking of the Phoenix again?

It was her fault for saying "Miss me" when she left. If he didn't think about her a dozen or twenty times a day, he'd feel like a scumbag.

But what's there to miss? A beautiful woman he'll never see again.

"The area we're in now is called Shennongjia. The ancient tomb is within the vast mountains of Shennongjia," Tang Fei said, staring at the map. "The tomb is in a crescent-shaped valley. Do you see the crescent valley?"

"No," Little Fatty shook his head. "I was looking for fruit in the trees."

"..."

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

It couldn't be helped; Little Fatty ate too much.

Fortunately, Tang Fei was an excellent hunter, so they didn't lack fresh ingredients along the way.

However, Little Fatty was like a bottomless pit. After gnawing on half a rabbit leg, he immediately started looking for fruit in the trees for a snack.

Seeing Tang Fei remain silent, Little Fatty initiated a conversation. "Big Brother, did Sister Phoenix give you this map?"

"Of course," Tang Fei nodded.

The map was taken from inside a pillow, hidden with the Xiuxue knife.

Since the Xiuxue knife was given to him, by logical deduction, the map was also given to him.

Tang Fei's education level was not high, but his ability to rationalize was excellent.

"Sister Phoenix said they came to find this great tomb, and someone wanted to claim it for themselves, which is why they attacked her," Little Fatty looked at Tang Fei and asked, "Since those people have already found the tomb, will they have taken everything inside? Will we get nothing when we go?"

Tang Fei squinted and smiled. "My view is the opposite of yours. The Phoenix did come for this great tomb, but in the eyes of some people, keeping the Phoenix on Old Earth forever was more important than the great tomb..."

"It's good that Sister Phoenix stayed on Old Earth. She's been gone for several days, and I miss her," Little Fatty said.

"The 'stay' I'm talking about is not the same as the 'stay' you're talking about. They wanted to kill your Sister Phoenix," Tang Fei explained.

Little Fatty became angry. "Why would they kill Sister Phoenix? Sister Phoenix is so kind and treats everyone well."

"In this world, many things have nothing to do with character. Within three feet, it's all about calculating interests. Only those who have nothing can experience true purity."

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

"That's about the gist of it," Tang Fei said.

"Sister Phoenix said this is a king's tomb. Will there be a lot of gold buried inside?"

Tang Fei chuckled. "A king's tomb is just something she said casually. She hasn't even entered it, so how would she know what kind of tomb it is?"

"How do you know she hasn't entered it?"

"I asked."

"...Sister Phoenix lies too?" Little Fatty was very disappointed. He hadn't expected Sister Phoenix to lie, and to him, no less.

"Doesn't the Old Man always teach us that women are all liars, and the more beautiful a woman is, the more she lies? You can't forget this; it's very important. Sometimes it can even cost someone their life."

"Sister Phoenix is indeed beautiful," Little Fatty acknowledged the Phoenix's appearance. "But Sister Phoenix didn't lie to you."

"Why?"

"Because she can't lie to you," Little Fatty said proudly.

My big brother is smart, so I'm smart.

"That makes sense," Tang Fei nodded. "Since those people wanted to go after the Phoenix, they wouldn't have the focus to search for this great tomb. If they made their move before entering the tomb, they'd have even less reason to keep looking for its location."

"Why?" Little Fatty asked.

"If you were caught peeking at Widow Li taking a bath, would you stay put instead of running?"

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

He paused and added, "Brother, I wasn't peeking at Widow Li bathing."

"I know, I was just using it as an analogy," Tang Fei comforted Little Fatty. "As you know, your Phoenix sister is a princess of the Phoenix Empire, with a rather special status. Those people wanted to kill her, but she escaped. Would they still dare to linger around looking for an ancient tomb? They would have vanished without a trace by now."

There was one more thing Tang Fei didn't say; it would be useless to tell Little Fatty.

Given the Phoenix's status and taste, which he'd observed during their time together, anything she fancied would naturally be extraordinary.

Therefore, what kind of great tomb this was, was worth looking forward to.

Tang Fei and Little Fatty wandered in the mountains for over an hour, their horses and themselves exhausted, barely able to continue.

Tang Fei jumped off his horse and said, "Let's find a place to rest. For a tomb of this caliber, people have searched for hundreds or thousands of years without finding it. How could we possibly find it in just a few days?"

Tang Fei's mindset was quite good.

It would be even better if they found it, but if not, it wouldn't matter. They had the map, and whether there was a date or not, they had to give it a shot.

Neither of them could read mountains or discern dragon veins, so relying solely on luck wouldn't be easy.

The book said that heartbroken men liked to travel and clear their minds, so he'd treat this trip as a "spiritual redemption journey."

"Okay!" Little Fatty happily jumped off the back of the big black horse. With a thump, the horse knelt on all fours and collapsed on the ground, its mouth open, panting heavily. It had been utterly exhausted these past few days.

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

"Okay, Big Brother," Little Fatty agreed readily, then pulled out the grilled field frog he hadn't finished from the morning and began to chew it noisily.

"That's for dinner tonight; I was going to reheat it. Never mind, never mind, eat it," Tang Fei couldn't stand Little Fatty's pathetic look of drooling over food.

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

"I'm not hungry," Tang Fei said. "I'm going to look at the map some more."

"Okay." Little Fatty popped the frog leg into his mouth.

It was easy to get sleepy while reading, and even more so while looking at a map.

Tang Fei started to yawn as he looked, and before he knew it, he had drifted off to sleep.

Little Fatty was also sleepy, but he hadn't finished his field frog yet, so he had to hold on a little longer.

When Tang Fei opened his eyes, the sky had completely darkened.

The night was cool like water, and the moon was full.

A rare good weather on Old Earth.

If only the Phoenix were here, Tang Fei thought to himself.

She would definitely like this night scenery.

Slap!

Tang Fei slapped himself in the face.

"At such an important moment, how can you think about women? You're not focusing on the task at hand."

Startled by the slap, Little Fatty jumped up from the ground and asked worriedly, "Brother… what's wrong? What happened?"

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

"Oh." Little Fatty was relieved. "It's my fault. I should have sat closer to you. Then the mosquitoes would only bite me and not you…"

Little Fatty was fleshy and had plenty of blood, so mosquitoes could feed to their heart's content.

When he was very young, after discovering this special ability, Little Fatty would deliberately sit next to Tang Fei during dinner every night.

That way, the mosquitoes would circle around him alone.

With his own effort, Little Fatty protected Tang Fei and the Old Man, and fed all the mosquitoes in the Hate Mountain District.

"You're not asleep?" Tang Fei asked.

"No," Little Fatty shook his head. "Didn't you say that when we're out, even when sleeping, we must remain vigilant, keeping one eye open and one eye closed?"

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

"You silly oaf," Tang Fei scolded him good-naturedly. "Are you hungry?"

"I'm hungry," Little Fatty nodded.

His Big Brother had slept for too long, and he hadn't eaten for several hours.

"You wait here, I'll go find something to eat," Tang Fei said.

"Alright!" Little Fatty said happily. He knew his big brother never came back empty-handed.

Tang Fei found a lake in the valley and decided to switch things up by making some grilled fish.

He ran to the lake's edge and crouched down to wait for a while. After observing small fish, shrimp, and various tiny creatures swimming within, he confirmed that the lake water was drinkable.

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

Then, he lay down on the ground, putting his mouth to the water and drinking his fill.

Suddenly, he looked up.

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

He jumped up from the ground, turned, and ran towards Little Fatty's location, shouting, "Little Fatty! Little Fatty! I know where the ancient tomb is! I found the entrance!"