A false alarm

Luo Zhong's tomb is dilapidated and desolate; without excavation, it would be difficult to find anything of value in the surrounding area.

Luo Zhong's coffin was weighed down by a blue stone and piled with a lot of mud, lying on its side in a corner of the palace.

Zhang Xuezhou waited in the tomb for an hour, making sure he sensed no danger before letting Yang Po return to his body.

He pondered for a few seconds, glanced in the direction of Emperor Luo Fu's tomb, and then once again entered Emperor Luo Zhong's tomb.

The familiar passageway presented no obstacle whatsoever.

After passing through the passage dug out by everyone once again, Zhang Xuezhou stood in front of Luo Zhong's imperial coffin.

He touched the bluestone pressing down on the imperial coffin, and continuously exerted his magical power with both hands.

A cracking sound rang out, and Zhang Xuezhou pushed the coffin open, causing half of the bluestone to fall off.

Decades of wind and rain have made Luo Zhong's coffin less sturdy than a sealed space. The oldest coffin in Luo Fudi's tomb is still quite thick. When the bluestone fell, the coffin was broken in half by the external force, revealing the skeleton inside.

As everyone had mentioned before, Luo Zhong's body was headless.

Beneath the tattered, greyish-white imperial robes lay half a dried-up skeleton.

Luo Chong wore the same clothes he wore in life as he died; no one changed his clothes or shoes.

"Excuse me!"

Using the light mounted on his helmet, Zhang Xuezhou examined the remains several times before finally removing the imperial robe from the skeleton.

Just as his vision blurred and he almost felt disoriented, Zhang Xuezhou reached out and grabbed the skeletal chest cavity, once again grasping the fragment that could distort light that he had seen before.

Just as he was about to turn this chip into dust, he glanced at it and realized that it seemed different from the chip in the Royal Tomb of Rococo.

The chip from the Luo Ke Imperial Tomb gave Zhang Xuezhou a sense of vitality, while the chip in his hand was like a dead object, giving him no sense of spatial dislocation.

More importantly, when Zhang Xuezhou looked at the chip, he did not see the thousands of old men again, nor even his own image.

The chip reflects only the light from searchlights, without any human figures mixed in.

"Luo Zhong has indeed broken this method!"

After the head and body separated, Luo Zhong was freed from the influence.

"In Luo Burang's memories, I saw that Luo Chong possessed immense power with just his head. Even if his heart were pierced, his body should still have the power to retaliate. However, Luo Chong was able to slaughter the emperor and destroy the dynasty. It is highly likely that he discovered the problem and retreated to avoid disaster, ultimately faking his death to escape!"

The life-and-death lessons of five emperors, from Luo Yan to Luo Zhong, compelled Luo Zhong to be cautious.

As for the fact that the Luofu Dynasty was not restored and that Luo Tianming had been imprisoning Luo Zhong, that was another matter beyond Luo Zhong's control.

With the chip in hand, Zhang Xuezhou also came to understand some of the long-forgotten matters.

In the contest between Luo Zhong and 'Huang Daoxian', the once-unrivaled Luo Zhong ultimately emerged as the loser.

What was Huang Daoxian's purpose in tampering with these emperors?

There are countless Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, each unique, possessing different worldviews and values.

On the continent of the Scarlet Alliance State, this Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon specializes in killing emperors, having successively murdered several emperors of the Luofu Dynasty.

This situation puzzled Zhang Xuezhou, who found it difficult to understand Huang Daoxian's true purpose. He ultimately attributed it to a peculiar hobby.

He examined the chip and concluded that after Luo Zhong destroyed it, it must have been abandoned and not retrieved by Huang Daoxian.

Like the special stones he discovered in North Rehe, this crystal chip could also be displayed and collected for future use; perhaps Zhang Xuezhou might be able to utilize it at some point.

"Neither Professor Ren nor I have reached Luo Zhong's level of strength back then. Luo Zhong's spiritual power should have been at the level of the seventh or eighth chapter. Huang Daoxian made Luo Zhong tremble and avoid him, so his strength should be stronger than Luo Zhong's. But what exactly does Huang Daoxian mean? Is he just going to keep killing emperors?"

Zhang Xuezhou pondered for a while, but found it difficult to grasp the style of this Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon.

If Huang Daoxian only kills emperors, then this Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon would indeed pose the least threat.

Even if the other party used their abilities to make grass and flowers grow on the emperor's head, these grasses would grow in the imperial tomb and would not come out to harm people.

Moreover, most of these emperors lived for many years; they didn't die immediately after ascending the throne. A group of old emperors and crown princes could be considered to have died of old age, or simply lived a few years less.

"Perhaps only Naggis can make a more accurate distinction!"

Zhang Xuezhou couldn't figure out the situation of the Scarlet Alliance State, this Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, nor could he understand their thought process.

The only thing Zhang Xuezhou was certain of was that the other party was not dead and might still be plotting something.

To be on the safe side, Zhang Xuezhou thought he could consult another Extraterrestrial Heavenly Demon, Nagos, who might know about Huang Daoxian's origins.

"Once we understand things a bit better, things aren't so urgent anymore. I'll send an email to Naggus's private inbox tomorrow to ask about the situation!"

Having basically discerned Huang Daoxian's style of doing things and his potential dangers, Zhang Xuezhou felt less anxious than before.

Calming himself down, he decided to seek further advice to thoroughly understand the situation and avoid acting haphazardly.

Zhang Xuezhou?

"Professor Zhang?"

When Zhou Yueyan and Zhou Rihui's voices came from inside the tomb, searching for someone, Zhang Xuezhou finally responded with a loud "Hey!"

"Still alive! What a false alarm!"

"You guys need to be more careful next time. He's just a reporter; how can he keep up with us? He'll embarrass himself without even realizing it!"

"Who knew that Zuo Jin would dare to spread false information about something like this!"

"Exactly, Zuo Quan must have been blinded by the treasure to be lying there!"

"It's also possible that Zuo Quan drank too much and wanted to rest, so he fell asleep!"

He only took two sips of wine; he's a terrible person with a low alcohol tolerance!

The brief, sarcastic remarks coming from inside the tomb quickly made Zhang Xuezhou understand why everyone had returned.

"To put it simply, we received a message from Zuo Jin, but he didn't dare to go into the tomb himself, so he called us all over. When we went in fully armed, we found Zuo Quan lying in front of a pile of jade artifacts, dozing off, with a jade pillar in his hand!"

Once the two sides reunited, Zhou Yueyan couldn't help but give a brief summary of her complaints.

"And you?" Zhou Yueyan asked.

"I couldn't keep up with you, so I had to search through the coffins here and open this imperial outer coffin for you. The timing was perfect; only a few minutes have passed since I opened it!"

Zhang Xuezhou pointed to Luo Zhong's remains, indicating that there were no purple gladiolus plants here.

"Emperor Luo Li is really incredibly poor!"

Zhou Yueyan looked at the empty imperial coffin and felt that Luo Zhong's burial was the poorest among all emperors in history. Moreover, his posthumous title was also extremely bad, and his reputation was completely ruined after his death.

"We didn't bury anything of value for him back then!"

Qin Wuxuan shook his head and then looked at his brother Qin Wenhan.

This made Qin Wenhan nod, indicating that Luo Zhong's tomb was uniquely poor, and it was almost impossible to make any money out of it.

If we're talking about value, it's only the imperial robe Luo Zhong was wearing on his corpse; it might fetch a small price if it comes across a buyer who likes unusual collectibles.

Seeing that Zhang Xuezhou, and that the reporter who was supposed to be an outsider was also involved in the act of destroying the imperial tomb, people looked at Zhang Xuezhou with a bit more approval when he got his hands dirty.