Three Visits

As a new official, Zhang Xuezhou was overly eager.

Before the handover ceremony was even held, Zhang Xuezhou had already arrived at the Dongshan Imperial Mausoleum Management Office with the pass.

The Dongshan Imperial Mausoleum Management Office is a four-story office building, with some residential buildings scattered around it.

The office building is where the management of Western Capital City works, while the residential buildings include residences for management personnel, housing for migrant workers, and also houses for some pilgrims who yearn for the Luofu Dynasty.

This eventually formed a settlement resembling a small village.

Zhang Xuezhou circled the imperial mausoleum several times, seeing piles of corpses in the tombs, but this was truly the first time he had ever seen so many living people here.

The management office building isn't particularly tall, but the land in Dongshan is vast, and the square there is huge enough to accommodate thousands of people dancing.

When Zhang Xuezhou arrived at the Imperial Mausoleum Management Office, he saw hundreds of men, women, and children dressed in the clothing of the previous dynasty holding a memorial ceremony in the square.

These people were solemn and fervent, as if they were kneeling before an emperor in a palace, and the ritual of bowing three times and kowtowing nine times was extremely solemn.

"Committee Member Zhang, should I go and disperse these people?"

Zhang Xuezhou arrived in a hurry as a new official, but he was still accompanied by four lackeys on patrol.

Compared to the high quality and high standards required of the imperial tomb managers, these patrol guards were incompetent and used a lot of bad people to suppress other bad people. They were all prisoners conscripted from the Western Capital City prison.

After changing into uniforms, these prisoners also became tools of evil; whenever these remnants of the old regime caused trouble, it was these prisoners who would step in.

Of course, every time the prisoners commit a crime, it means that they will have to be put back in prison to serve their sentences.

However, despite the increases and decreases, the prisoners' sentences were actually reduced significantly.

This is a service job that many prisoners envy.

The patrol guard who questioned Zhang Xuezhou at this moment was named Song Mo. He clearly wanted to beat these people up and then quickly exchange it for a reduction in their sentences.

"There's plenty of space, let them kneel and sing as they please!"

Patrol guards who were quick to call for violence were not the personnel Zhang Xuezhou preferred, but they were exactly the kind of managers the Dongshan Imperial Mausoleum needed.

It was precisely because they knew the identities of these prisoners that these former officials and their descendants dared not act recklessly at the imperial tomb.

Zhang Xuezhou watched the ceremony with great interest for a while before entering the management office building area.

The management office building includes standard office spaces, but it also houses many exhibition halls displaying artifacts from previous dynasties. The dark displays stretch as far as the eye can see, and it's impossible to tell how many antiques are on display.

"Some of these relics belonged to the mausoleum area, but were moved to our management office after the mausoleum was damaged. The other part was transported from the Imperial Palace in Western Capital City for these people to view!"

"I don't know what's so interesting about these old things. They're just old clothes and old utensils that we've discarded for years!"

"Life in the old society was worse than that of a dog. I'd rather go to jail than go back to that era!"

"We're much more comfortable in prison now than the nobles were back then!"

Abundant food and clothing have changed the social hierarchy. In the past, only nobles and landlords could afford to eat and dress well, but modern people can easily enjoy the living conditions of the former high-ranking officials.

Even if modern dwellings are not as spacious as the aristocratic mansions of decades or centuries ago, modern people can still use the convenience of electrical appliances to maintain balance.

Under these circumstances, few educated, normal people yearn to return to the old days of the Luofu Dynasty; only these remnants of the old regime long for the power they once wielded.

Many of the patrol guards were of questionable character, but their thinking and logic were still quite normal.

Or perhaps these people are portraying themselves as representing the new era, showing no mercy when fighting against these remnants of the old era, thus demonstrating their loyalty and attitude when introducing themselves to Zhang Xuezhou.

"Alright, I've found the place. You can all go back now. Those who are supposed to patrol, continue your patrols tonight. Those who are supposed to go to work, go to work as usual tomorrow. Let's have another get-together in two weeks!"

Zhang Xuezhou strolled around for a bit, then started shooing people away.

He came here to try his luck and find good fortune in Dongshan, not to deal with the old and degenerate remnants, and he had no interest in visiting these old artifacts.

He touched the Tongtian ruler in his pocket, then the gold necklace Zuo Quan, wondering if he could gain any benefit from Zuo Quan Quan's favor.

It doesn't need to be a long time. As long as he pushes his Fortune Body to absorb energy for a while every morning, Zhang Xuezhou feels that the probability of misfortune under the influence of his luck will be greatly reduced, even if someone uses Fortune Technique against him.

This was the fastest solution Zhang Xuezhou could come up with, and it also placed great emphasis on luck.

He took a deep breath, and after driving away the patrolling guards who had led the way, Zhang Xuezhou wandered around looking for an easy entrance and exit.

He needed to keep proof that he hadn't left the office building, and he also needed to find an import/export channel that could expedite the process.

This may seem like a small matter, but it has a unique and remarkable use in both getting into and getting out of trouble.

In particular, the surveillance footage in the corridor of the management office building serves as further proof; should they encounter Zuo Quan's investigation, Zhang Xuezhou could rely on the surveillance footage to escape the investigation.

He searched back and forth several times before finally finding a suitable entrance/exit in a secondhand goods display room on the fourth floor.

"There are curtains, the shaded area is dark enough, and there's no barbed wire at the window, so you can fly right out after opening the window!"

Zhang Xuezhou didn't hesitate; once he found a suitable spot, he had already spread his arms.

The Cloud Soaring Technique is difficult to execute, but the Gene Power brought by the Ferocious Beast giant bird can be released normally through adjustments.

After a few seconds of adjustment, Zhang Xuezhou quickly put on his blackout suit and then jumped out of the window.

The feeling of falling vertically overwhelmed him, and he couldn't help but frantically claw at the ground with his hands.

After barely managing to stabilize himself, Zhang Xuezhou staggered and flew towards the direction of Emperor Luo Yan's tomb.

"Misfortunes never come singly! The power of the Ferocious Beast giant bird within me seems to be slowly dissipating, which almost made me fall from the fourth floor!"

Zhang Xuezhou touched his body and felt that the power of the Ferocious Beast giant ant that resisted external impacts was still there. This made it difficult for him to determine whether his ability to fly had dissipated or been affected by the mutated falcon genes in his body.

His current ability to fly using Gene Power isn't very strong; it's not much stronger than Zhou Tianhao's.

These abilities are unknown until they are used, and when they were used, they almost scared Zhang Xuezhou.

He is now clearly at odds with Zuo Quan and the others, and their conflicting fortunes have caused some minor troubles.

As he flew across the night sky, Zhang Xuezhou tried his best to adjust his physical condition.

He is an extremely professional jumper; even if his physical abilities were the same as others, he would certainly jump better.

Using the trees as stepping stones for leverage, Zhang Xuezhou evaded the surveillance and landed firmly in the dark area outside the Luo Yan Imperial Mausoleum.

Holding a lucky gold necklace in his left hand and a Tongtian ruler in his right, he stealthily lifted the barrier again and slipped into the imperial tomb.

As an imperial tomb that has been under investigation for a long time, the investigation here has never stopped, and even more monitoring points have been set up.

Everything is ready, except for someone to step forward.

Even though Zhang Xuezhou and others speculated that Zuo Quan was influenced by the purple sword orchid at Luo Yan's imperial tomb, and even that a controlling connection had been formed, everything here remained unchanged.

Even if this doesn't yield any investigative leads, at least it serves as a deterrent to prevent Zuo Quan from easily returning to this area.

In other words, the presence of this external surveillance allowed Zhang Xuezhou to act more boldly.

This prompted him to quickly shut down the surveillance cameras inside the imperial mausoleum used for live streaming, and then turn on a high-brightness flashlight, bringing everything inside the Luo Yan Emperor's mausoleum back into view.