Seeing Li Jiao Again

"Gentlemen, are we digging up a grave?"

Caught between the rocks, Zhang Xuezhou wore an awkward smile.

He had observed these men from a distance before and knew they were soldiers from the Northern Frontier Legion who had been pursuing him.

Zhang Xuezhou hadn't expected these people to be so persistent; even after he lay down in the tomb, they still brought in gravediggers.

Thinking that he had only written a few large characters, yet the other party had gone so far as to dig up his grave, Zhang Xuezhou felt that this enmity was rather deep.

"I'm giving up resistance now. I'll confess everything, I'll cooperate, I'll fully cooperate!"

Before anyone could even begin to berate him, Zhang Xuezhou had already raised his hands in surrender.

Compared to the eeriness of the tomb, he felt that being able to see the sunlight was wonderful.

Without the help of these people to move the guardian stone, Zhang Xuezhou felt he might not have been able to dig it out.

Of course, he also had little chance of making a comeback.

The broken stone at the tomb door fell, and countless stones rained down inside the tomb behind him. Anyone who retreated even a step would be crushed to death, or, if given enough time, would be frozen into the broken stones by the Everlasting Mountain and River Formation.

With certain death looming ahead, it was no surprise that Zhang Xuezhou succumbed to the crowd in front of him.

And he also had to beg these people to get to work faster.

Thanks to their not-so-powerful Acupoint-Fixing Technique, the group wouldn't be able to move the Dragon-Slaying Stone for very long.

"Open it just a little bit more, and as long as my head can squeeze out, my body will follow!"

"You..."

"Please wait until I get out before asking. This tomb is about to close, and we could all easily die here!"

Ning Cheng wanted to ask a couple more questions, but Zhang Xuezhou's cooperation left him speechless.

He watched Zhang Xuezhou constantly emerging from the gap, and pondered the chilling aura that had given him goosebumps. He concluded that what Zhang Xuezhou said was probably true.

"Give it another push, move it just a little more!"

Ning Cheng made a gesture, and the generals exhaled and shouted again.

The rumbling sound of falling rocks echoed from the tomb, causing not only Zhang Xuezhou's expression to change drastically, but also the expressions of everyone else to turn pale.

Whose tomb is this?

Seeing Zhang Xuezhou's head sticking out, Ning Cheng pulled Zhang Xuezhou's head out and asked in a low voice.

"Liu Wu, the King of Liang!"

Zhang Xuezhou's reply confirmed everyone's suspicions.

"We can't talk about this carelessly anymore!"

No matter how powerful the Northern Frontier Legion, it is still just a legion guarding the frontier, and they are just members of that legion.

But right now they're destroying the tombs of royal relatives like the Prince of Liang.

The hatred of digging up someone's ancestral graves is similar to that of killing one's parents; once these crimes become known, they become irreconcilable feuds.

No matter how arrogant people are, they would never think of making such a deep-seated enemy.

Even some grave robbers only dig up old, large tombs to avoid any potential entanglements, and they don't choose modern tombs.

"How many days has it been since the King of Liang was buried?" Ning Cheng asked in a low voice.

"About three days," Zhang Xuezhou said.

Did he say anything?

"He seemed to have said he wanted to die with some dignity!"

Zhang Xuezhou shook his head, which was throbbing from Ning Cheng's pulling. Once his hands were freed, he immediately turned his strength inward and pulled out the back half of his body.

"This Dragon-Slaying Stone mechanism can actually recover automatically!"

Although damaging the Liang King's tomb was a serious crime, the crowd was indeed curious about it. When they saw Zhang Xuezhou emerge, the three generals immediately let go of his grip.

Everyone watched as the guardian stone slowly moved, gradually closing in on its previous position.

This caused everyone to gasp.

"The tomb of King Liang is extraordinary. Apart from his wife and children, anyone who knew anything about it should be dead inside!"

It was only later that everyone realized why no one had come to check on Feng Xize, and why even the numerous guards and horses of the Liang Prince's Mansion were left unattended.

"How did you get in?" Ning Cheng asked.

"I only became a guest at Liang Garden a few days ago. I spoke obediently to please the King of Liang, and that's how I was chosen to accompany him to inspect the tomb. Who would have thought he would die inside... Huh?"

Zhang Xuezhou's cooperation was genuine; he not only answered whatever Ning Cheng and the others asked, but he also abandoned any thoughts of escape.

It wasn't that Zhang Xuezhou didn't want to flee, but rather that he was simply too physically exhausted.

He continuously unleashed Acupoint-Fixing Technique, using tools like the Deer-Slaying Blade to cut through layers of stone several meters thick. Within him, not only was his Law Power lacking, but his physical strength was also depleted, and even his Demon Power was not much left.

He's like a fish on a chopping board now; he has no choice but to cooperate.

As Zhang Xuezhou answered the questions, he also glanced at everyone's faces.

Besides Ning Cheng's familiar face, he also spotted another face.

After removing the knight's helmet and visor, a familiar face came into Zhang Xuezhou's view.

General Li?

"Hmm?"

You still owe me a scroll of the Supreme Purity True Technique!

Zhang Xuezhou looked at Li Jiao's familiar face and then pointed to himself.

"You promised me at the Nine-Foot Daoist Temple four years ago," Zhang Xuezhou said.

The revisiting of old stories brought up not only Zhang Xuezhou's memories, but also those of General Lang Li Jiao.

That marked the beginning of Zhang Xuezhou's cultivation journey, and also the start of Li Jiao's continuous misfortunes over the past few years.

Over the years, assassins and demons have appeared one after another to try to kill him, which has forced Li Guang to order all generals in the army to wear iron masks, and Li Jiao was one of them.

This allowed Li Jiao to avoid numerous assassination attempts, but some of his generals also lost their lives in assassination attempts by Xiong State and cultivators from its Sacred Land Xiong State.

As a result, Li Jiao faced considerable criticism and lived an unhappy life, feeling guilty that he was responsible for the deaths of those generals.

It wasn't until Li Jiao learned from Zhufu Yan that the wealthy young master who had fled knew the way to the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains that a spark of excitement returned to her heart.

Many people tried to assassinate him, but if he could launch several attacks along the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains and sweep away the wandering legions of the Xiong State several times, he could definitely reduce the number of assassins significantly.

It can be said that Zhang Xuezhou was almost the key to solving his mental illness.

Memories flooded Li Jiao's mind, and Li Jiao couldn't help but widen her eyes as she looked at the young cultivator whose Mingdu even asked in years.

The thought that Zhang Xuezhou must be meager after only a few years of cultivation dampened his enthusiasm considerably. However, the fact that Zhang Xuezhou had made them chase him for several days and even managed to sneak into the Liang King's tomb made Li Jiao think that it wouldn't be surprising if Zhang Xuezhou had managed to sneak into the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.

He felt extremely conflicted.

On the one hand, he felt that Zhang Xuezhou was not skilled enough to traverse the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains; on the other hand, Zhang Xuezhou had actually crawled out of the Liang King's tomb, which undoubtedly showed that people like Zhang Xuezhou were extremely lucky and might indeed know the secrets of the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains.

But before he could even ask any questions about the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, Zhang Xuezhou was already collecting debts incredibly quickly.

"You saved Zhou Cang and Zhao Mu's lives, so I naturally won't go back on my promise to you," Li Jiao said. "I promised you that once your cultivation reaches the requirements for the later stages of cultivation, you can come to the Northern Border Military Region to find me. That promise still stands!"

"It's so hard to find you!"

Zhang Xuezhou thought about the word pepper that he had not written in Shanggu County City, and realized that it was indeed a coincidence.

He was thinking about extricating himself from the trouble he had caused in Shanggu County, so he immediately pushed the matter away.

"I searched for you for a long time, and even the friend who helped me was imprisoned in Fuping County Jail," Zhang Xuezhou sighed. "After that, I had no choice but to run to Shanggu County and write some large characters!"

"Are those big characters you wrote for me?" Li Jiao asked, puzzled.

"Sorry, I can't write pepper!"

"You're asking me to pay with my life..."

"I just made things sound more serious; apparently, that's how you get more attention, and sure enough, I've met you!"

Zhang Xuezhou's response made Li Jiao's liver hurt.

If Zhang Xuezhou didn't have the ability to traverse the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains, all their work these past few days would have been for nothing, and they might even have lost their personal weapons and Law Treasure for nothing.