Chapter 17 - So There Is A Tomb
Several minutes later.
The sounds of arms clashing stopped. Wang Suqin used her sword as a walking stick, several wounds now on her body.
Surrounding her, the eleven servants all lay dead on the spot, their appearances wretched.
"Impressive," Chen Chen praised her, looking at the corpses.
Looking at Chen Chen, who had not been stained a single dust particle, Wang Suqin's eyes were as ferocious as they could possibly be. She said in a husky tone, "How vicious."
"You want to talk about rules with me, so I talk about rules with you. You want to play fists with me, so I play fists with you. How am I vicious?"
Chen Chen smiled as he talked.
Wang Suqin had no words; by this point, she had only hatred and envy in her heart.
How come this lad from such a lowly background could embark on the journey of cultivation, yet she couldn't!
She hated heaven for its injustice!
The next moment, she immediately turned to the horse, attempting to flee.
But the moment she was on the horse, sounds of air pushing away could be heard.
Before she could react, a sharp knife punctured her through her chest.
She struggled to turn her head, seeing the lad in front of the stele with that same smile on his face, as if nothing had happened.
Wang Suqin's fury reached its peaks at this point. Then, she dropped from the horse, her heart unwilling and her breath lost.
Chen Chen didn't speak anything at first; he quietly walked into the cluster of people, leading a stampede on any living servant. Soon, none of the Wang's people remained alive.
All the villagers of Stone Village looked at the frightfully quiet scene.
Chen Chen sighed in his heart. He did not turn back to look at the villagers and his parents, only saying quietly, "This is a tough era, and sometimes killing is necessary to stop others from killing."
Afterwards, he rode on Wang Suqin's white horse.
Just before he made a visit to the Wang household, his mother's voice came from behind him.
"Xiao Chen, be careful!"
Hearing this, Chen Chen briefly stopped, then left on his horse without any further delays.
...
"The inhibitor has achieved achievement, Killing, and has been awarded one opportunity for tracking within a ten-kilometer radius."
Chen Chen smiled upon receiving that information in his brain.
While inferior to the original track within Shichuan county, this ten-kilometer tracking was still a pleasant surprise.
Instead of rushing to use this opportunity, Chen Chen continued to move towards the Wang family's house.
"System, anything of major worth within this 15-meter range?"
"No."
...
Throughout the ride, Chen Chen utilized the System to his maximum advantage. After all, he finally got a transportation tool for use, and there was no reason to give up such a good searching opportunity.
He had made some plans: he may as well be a sword cultivator, riding swords for treasures across historic mountains and valleys. Wouldn't that be amazing?
As he made those tentative plans inside his heart, the System gave him a different response in his brain.
"There is a tomb about to collapse, fourteen meters underground to the left of you. It contains precious items"
Hearing this, Chen Chen immediately became alert.
"Tomb! Turns out, there ARE surprise discoveries!"
In theory, he, a fine teenager, should not steal from tombs. But then, this tomb was about to collapse. In that case, he shouldn't be blamed for his actions, right?
Thinking this, he jumped off of his horse and went towards the location the System suggested.
It was just a regular grassland next to the road. With fine grass on top, there were no signs of irregularities, never mind any signs of a tomb below.
Chen Chen walked above it for a bit, but there were no reactions.
He then stomped on the ground. Suddenly, the ground collapsed.
Thankfully, Chen Chen reacted very fast at this point. By the time the ground collapsed, he had jumped out of range.
As the dust settled, he walked closer for a look, making an interesting discovery.
There was a coffin, as deteriorated as it could possibly be. Even the bones inside had rotten away, leaving only powder behind.
In addition, there were some anti-theft traps and some sprinkling gears. It seemed like the traps had been quite delicate when they were still intact.
But by this point, all that was left were some nearly rotten metal spikes pointing upwards towards the sky.
'This tomb may be older than Shichuan County itself!' Chen Chen said to himself, carefully poking the soil away.
He soon found a delicate wooden box inside the rotten coffin.
Using unknown materials, the box was somehow still in good shape and exuded a faint fragrance despite both the coffin and the bones having rotten away.
There were precious items inside the wooden box, for sure.
As a precaution against potential anti-theft mechanisms, Chen Chen practiced the utmost caution, using a tree branch to flip the box open.
He turned out to have thought too much. There were no mechanisms inside. All that was inside were two jade pamphlets and a small jade bottle.
Inside the jade bottle, there were some elixir leftovers, clearly not for consumption.
Chen Chen shook his head, then took out the two jade pamphlets.
The first read "Yimu Mediumship Knack."
The second read "Pyrokinesis Craft."
'Are these cultivation materials?'
Chen Chen was stunned as he looked at the ashes inside the tomb.
He didn't expect the deceased person to be a cultivator.
But apparently, he wasn't on a particularly high tier. It was likely that he was on the same tier as Chen Chen, simply on the "top tier" stage of qi training. Otherwise, his bones wouldn't have been so rotten.
As for the two "secret books," they probably weren't top-notch techniques.
Chen Chen wasn't refusing it, however. Setting the Yimu Mediumship Knack aside, he started reading the Pyrokinesis Craft with more detail.
The so-called "Pyrokinesis" was fundamentally a trick in the circulation of ethereality. Because of either Chen Chen's high talents or the Pyrokinesis Craft's low difficulty, Chen Chen could manipulate his ethereality and have his fingertip playing with fire after a quick read through.
Most importantly, he doesn't feel any pain on his finger.
'Interesting!'
Chen Chen's eyes shone. He finally found a piece of interest beyond his reach in his last life in this world.
Being in a rush to kill the Wangs, Chen Chen didn't spend any more time on it. Packing up the jade pamphlet, he buried the tomb once again.
After all, having obtained items from this individual, he should show some sign of appreciation by not leaving his body exposed in the open, even though this fellow practitioner's bones were nearly gone.
As Chen Chen buried the tomb and prepared to leave, sounds of horse running came from the end of the road. Soon, around one dozen men entered his eyesight.
"Stop running!"
"Kill him!"
"You are dying today!"
Looking at the scene before him, Chen Chen's face turned grim.
After finding out the person being chased, his face became grimmer.
"What's with this Mr. Zhang? He's being chased after and almost killed daily! Can we even get one peaceful day?"
After commenting dryly in his heart, Chen Chen looks into the tomb, his heart somewhat frightened.
Was it possible that the two jade pamphlets he had just received should have been found by Mr. Zhang?
What was up with this Mr. Zhang? Was he an illegitimate child of heaven or something?
As he wondered this in his heart, anxious calls from Mr. Zhang came from afar.
"Please move out of the way, my young man! These people behind me won't even blink an eye at an accidental kill!"
Hearing this, Chen Chen hurried off of the road with his horse.
The approximately one dozen horses soon approached Chen Chen. The group chasing behind Mr. Zhang were in similar outfits to the one worn by the servants of the Wang household; they may very well have been servants of that household.
As Mr. Zhang rode past Chen Chen with his horse, a servant chasing behind him noticed the wooden box in Chen Chen's hands. His eyes suddenly shone with greed, shouting, "This lad has a box made of agarwood in his hands!"
Screech!
Learning of his words, every servant chasing behind Mr. Zhang halted their horse as they stared at Chen Chen, who was standing next to the road.