An ancient tomb deep in the mountains

North of Dan Prefecture, Purple Emblem Mountain.

Lightning split the sky. Raindrops the size of soybeans battered an old tent with a sharp patter.

Xie Jinhuan lay on a bedroll, his head swimming and his throat feeling as though he had swallowed razor blades. He called hoarsely:

"Dad... Dad~~... you old geezer?!"

"Where is everyone? Gone to the yamen for duty...?"

Xie Jinhuan called for the household servants and maids, but still no one answered. His mouth parched, he could only grit his teeth, prop himself up, and grope for a teapot.

But the moment he reached out, he froze.

Rain poured down, making the tent fabric shudder incessantly. A candle lantern hung at the entrance, illuminating several bedrolls inside-and a corpse outside!

The corpse lay beside the campfire, its clothes torn and its face covered in blood. An iron mace had pierced its chest, pinning it to the ground.

The iron mace was silver-white throughout, with a rounded pommel and a beast-shaped guard. The words "Heavenly Gang" were engraved on it. It was his weapon...

Fuck, what the hell did I do?!

Xie Jinhuan sprang upright and looked around. Only then did he realize he was lying in an unfamiliar tent, surrounded by a sunless wilderness of deep mountains and ancient woods. He was still clutching a sword, while his mansion, enormous bed, and lackeys had all vanished.

What the hell is this place? Have I been kidnapped?!

Xie Jinhuan was utterly bewildered. As his mind cleared, his memories returned:

Over a decade ago, he had unexpectedly gotten another shot at life, born in the capital of the Great Qian Dynasty. His father was Wanan County's commandant, his mother had died early, and he was their only child...

A man given a second life could hardly settle for living beneath others! At three, I vowed to outwork the local natives to death!

At sixteen, he had accomplished nothing. He accompanied his father on a transfer to Lingnan and encountered a yaoguai along the way...

And that was it.

Xie Jinhuan's last memory was of fleeing pell-mell through the woods with a yaoguai chasing him.

The next second, he was lying here with a corpse in front of him.

What happened?

Did I fail to outrun that yaoguai and restart again?

This won't do. I finally made it to puberty, and I haven't even tasted whether wealthy ladies are salty or sweet...

Realizing something was wrong, Xie Jinhuan hurriedly raised his sword as a mirror and examined his reflection by candlelight:

Fortunately, his appearance had not changed much. He was still himself.

But he clearly looked more mature than before, and he had grown considerably taller...

Could several years have passed already?

Xie Jinhuan frowned and racked his brains, but could not recall anything recent. He did not even know whether his father was alive. He could only turn his attention to the corpse outside and assess his current predicament.

Whoosh...

The torrential rain washed the blood from the corpse's face. Fear from its final moments still lingered on those pale features. It was not a familiar face.

Bloody water spread beneath the corpse, gradually seeping into an opening nearby.

The opening lay beneath a mound and looked like the entrance to a "tomb," but the interior had collapsed completely.

Judging by the arrangements inside the tent, there had been four people in total, camped here for at least three days. His own clothes were clean, so he was probably an outsider.

From what he saw, Xie Jinhuan could roughly piece together what had happened:

These people were tomb robbers digging up a grave here. He had arrived midway, and their clash had caused the tomb to collapse. Three people had been buried inside, while the old Daoist had escaped, only for Xie Jinhuan to stab him dead at the entrance...

"But why did I come here?"

Like someone who had blacked out after a drinking binge, Xie Jinhuan could remember nothing of his recent experiences. Studying the surrounding traces carefully, he felt that the strength they revealed did not seem like his handiwork either.

To win at the starting line, Xie Jinhuan had begun working hard while he still had a pacifier in his mouth. But he had not confined his efforts to martial arts. He had also dabbled in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, astronomy, geography, bearing, conversation, body sculpting, and fitness...

He had intended to become a master of all trades, but studying everything had left him proficient in nothing.

Because his other pursuits had consumed too much time, he had only barely climbed to the eighth rank of martial arts by sixteen.

His sole achievement was that, having paid attention to his physique and speech since childhood, he was handsome, dressed well, and spoke pleasingly. Every married lady who met him remembered him vividly. One might say he was charging headlong toward becoming "Lao Ai"...

Yet judging by the traces at the scene, he had killed this old Daoist with a casual move, barely exerting himself. He was probably no less than a hundred times stronger than before!

Did I crawl into the Supreme Lord Lao's alchemy furnace?

Feeling the primordial power inside him, enough to fuck a female dragon to death, Xie Jinhuan grew even more puzzled.

Unable to recall the reason, he could only rummage through the tent for clues.

And his search really did clarify his current circumstances-but it also uncovered something terrifying!

Besides luggage and tools, the tent contained a few documents and an apprentice's copy of The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles.

According to the journal, it was currently autumn in the eighth year of Jingning. He was nineteen and a half, and three years had passed since his father's transfer to Lingnan.

Nor was he currently in the barren mountains and treacherous waters of the southern frontier. He was in Dan Prefecture, just over a hundred li from Jingzhao Prefecture.

As he turned to the latest entries in The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles, several lines of crooked handwriting came into view:

Eighth month, fifth day: Master traced the dragon veins and sought the burial site, discovering a large tomb behind Purple Emblem Mountain. Master suspects it is where Qixia True Person entered Life-and-Death Seclusion. There must be cultivation methods and precious treasures inside...

Eighth month, eighth day: We broke ground today and dug down to the tomb door. There is a Daoist seal on it, something like a Demon-Suppressing Talisman. Master says it was to prevent Qixia True Person from falling into demonic deviation during seclusion...

Eighth month, ninth day: Had a dream. Met a Red-Robed Female Yaoguai in it, with big breasts and a plump ass. I feel like she likes me. Unfortunately, Master slapped me awake, and we went back to digging...

Eighth month, ninth day, night: We finally opened the tomb door. There are lots of women's burial goods inside. A Demon-Suppressing Coffin stands in the middle, with Purple Emblem Mountain's "Zhenglun Sword," lost for a hundred years, thrust into it. A precious treasure indeed. We need to find a way to pull the sword out...

The entries ended there.

"Demon-Suppressing Coffin, Red-Robed Female Yaoguai, Zhenglun Sword..."

Xie Jinhuan had known since childhood that the Great Qian Dynasty teemed with all manner of demons, monsters, ghosts, and fiends. Suddenly seeing these words made his heart lurch. His gaze slid toward the longsword he held for protection:

The sword was three feet three inches long, dark blue-green throughout, and engraved with the words "Zhenglun"...

Isn't this the sword from that Demon-Suppressing Coffin?

This is bad!

For this sword to have ended up in his hands, barring anything unexpected, these death-defying tomb robbers must have already opened the Demon-Suppressing Coffin and released the Red-Robed Female Yaoguai.

Perhaps he had inexplicably come here to stop the tomb robbers from courting death, only to fail and be injured by the yaoguai, causing him to forget his recent experiences.

This had happened just now. If the female yaoguai's emergence from the coffin really had caused the current situation, she might still be nearby...

At that thought, Xie Jinhuan's heart went half cold. He cautiously looked around.

Just then, an unidentified sound came from outside the tent:

Scrape~ scrape~

It sounded like some unknown creature tearing at flesh.

Xie Jinhuan's expression changed abruptly. He swiftly pointed his sword at the tent entrance.

Crack-

At that same moment, a flash of lightning briefly illuminated the campsite outside.

Beneath the pouring rain, the campfire had gone out completely. The charred roast rabbit had been dragged aside, and a dark shape was pecking at it with its head lowered.

The dark shape's feathers were black as ink, making it resemble a lump of coal. Only its amber eyes reflected a ghostly gleam in the lightning, like two wisps of ghost fire floating outside the tent.

Looking closely, Xie Jinhuan found the dark shape familiar and tried calling:

"Coal Ball?"

"Goo-jee?"

The black eagle pecking at the roast rabbit froze at his voice.

Perhaps afraid of being caught stealing food and scolded by its master, it quietly put the rabbit back where it had been, then crouched in the rain and pretended to be diligently keeping watch.

Xie Jinhuan had been scared half out of his wits. At the sight, he nearly swore.

The black eagle was called Coal Ball, a personal maidservant Xie Jinhuan had picked up for half a string of coins on the capital's Bird-and-Flower Street.

The vendor had called it a "Black-Winged Roc," with divine-beast blood, claiming it would grow to have a wingspan of a thousand zhang and feed on dragons.

After Xie Jinhuan's meticulous care, however, he had successfully raised a "Black-Winged Fatso," one foot tall and one foot around the waist, whose favorite food was "hazel grouse stewed with mushrooms."

Fortunately, the unscrupulous merchant had not been shameless enough to dye a pheasant and pass it off as something else. Coal Ball was indeed rather intelligent and could understand human speech. As long as food was not involved, it never lied.

Xie Jinhuan had no time to discipline his personal maidservant. Carrying his sword, he approached and asked:

"Did you see a yaoguai?"

"Goo?"

Coal Ball looked around, quite bewildered.

Seeing that, Xie Jinhuan knew it had not.

But judging by The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles, the Red-Robed Female Yaoguai had most likely already left the coffin!

With a gap in his memory and no grasp of the current situation, he dared not linger. He swiftly pulled the Heavenly Gang Mace from the corpse and held on to the demon-suppressing sword as a protective charm:

"Let's go. There's a monster here."

"Goo~"

Coal Ball was exceedingly obedient. Seeing this, it picked up the roast rabbit beside the campfire, flapped its wings, and hopped along behind him, disappearing into the boundless rainy night.

As the man and bird departed, the campsite fell silent, and the sinister atmosphere in the mountain wilderness gradually dissipated like smoke and clouds.

It seemed that something unseen had also followed Xie Jinhuan away from the ancient tomb deep in the mountains...