He searched the entire burial chamber and confirmed that every heat source was cooling. Only then did he laboriously turn his body around and lower his head to emerge through the narrow passage.
Xiao Yu crouched on a rock. She had refused to enter because the air inside the tomb was poisonous. Seeing Jin Si emerge, she asked curiously.
"Is this place a cultivation haven?"
Jin Si carefully recalled the earth energy swirling through the burial chamber.
"Better than outside, but not as good as the havens in the Spirit Realm."
He surveyed the unfinished grand tomb, with its scattered heaps of stone and neatly chiseled walls. How many laborers would a project of this scale require? He could not help marveling. "The mountain's so high, and they dug so deep. They must have hired a lot of people. That must have cost a fortune."
Xiao Yu tilted her head.
"Perhaps they didn't need to pay wages."
Jin Si remembered the things he had witnessed before and shook his head.
Forget it. Ignore it. Other people's affairs have nothing to do with me. We still have to get to the next place.
Xiao Yu took flight first to scout the locations, while Jin Si swiftly slithered after her. When thirsty, he crushed the ice over a stream, lowered his head, and gulped down a few mouthfuls of cold water before continuing over mountains and ridges.
They had been on the move since leaving early that morning, rushing along without time to rest. Looking up, he dimly saw the red sun sinking beyond the mountains. The sky was dusky yellow. At this hour, birds should have been returning to the woods and all sounds fading into silence. Suddenly, countless birds burst from the mountains, beating their wings and scattering wildly.
Jin