"Master, do you know my father?" Li Chonglou's tone changed, becoming slightly trembling and disbelieving.
He had never seen his father since he could remember.
He only learned from his mother that his father had disappeared.
Growing up in a fatherless home, he became the target of bullying among other children from a young age.
Over time, lacking courage, he became known as a coward among his classmates throughout middle school, high school, and university.
His mother, with no one to rely on, raised him through countless hardships and the scorn of others.
Yet, she fell gravely ill, and to save her, he was forced into a marriage of convenience.
Everything that followed was a consequence of losing his father in his childhood.
Of course, a life's transformation is not determined by a single event, but this was the most probable among countless unknown outcomes.
Because of the news of his father, Li Chonglou resolutely went to Yong'an with Li Duo'er on Jiang Yuxin's birthday.
It turned out to be a trap.
He thought he would never have any more clues in this lifetime.
Yet, unexpectedly, his Master dropped such a bombshell.
His father, a farmer, why would he be connected to his Master?
"That was twenty-four years ago..." Lin Zhendong's gaze became distant and hazy.
The prison guards standing in the distance pricked up their ears to listen.
Li Chonglou and Lin Ying were completely engrossed, failing to notice the guards' peculiar expressions.
Lin Zhendong slowly recounted the past: "When Xiao Ying was three years old, her mother died unexpectedly."
"I was twenty-eight that year, young and impetuous, deeply in love."
"I felt like the whole world had collapsed. I tried everything, sparing no expense, to save her."
"But in the end, things did not go as planned..."
"However, at that moment, I saw an ancient text that mentioned a supreme treasure from the Qin Dynasty, and that treasure was the Shi Bo Qiong."
"The ancient text said that by obtaining it, one could travel through time and reshape the past."
"Heh heh... and I actually believed such a myth..."
Lin Zhendong paused at this point.
The prison guard nearby let out a disdainful sneer.
Traveling through time, reshaping the past? A myth.
Isn't this a time machine? In the real world, there's nothing so magical.
This Lin Zhendong must be out of his mind.
But the same words, to Li Chonglou, felt entirely different, like a thunderclap that tore open a void.
This was definitely not a myth.
He knew it too well.
It was precisely because of the Shi Bo Qiong that he was reborn and changed his destiny.
He was a firsthand witness to the entire event, an undeniable fact that allowed for no dispute.
"Master, but what does this have to do with my dad?" Li Chonglou forced himself to calm down and asked.
No child dislikes their father, especially boys.
His father was the guiding star of his growth, an idol, an object of spiritual worship and learning.
How tragic it would be to grow up without a father's involvement.
Li Chonglou understood deeply that his early life had too many regrets. If not for Lin Zhendong's later care and guidance, treating him like a father, his fate would not have undergone such a dramatic change.
"I believed what the book said and went to search," Lin Zhendong replied. "But such ancient treasures are nowhere to be found."
"I searched for a full five years, descended into Qin Emperor's tomb, countless Han tombs, and even visited most imperial tombs from every dynasty."
"But not only did I not find the Shi Bo Qiong, I didn't even see anything related to it."
"Until, when Xiao Ying was eight years old, I met your father..."
"That was twenty-four years ago. You had just been born, and I still remember the first time I saw you."
"Your father was bitten by a venomous snake, but he was still holding you. You were a bit dark then, with a round, chubby face, weighing seven catties and two taels, completely different from how thin you are now."
"You were wrapped in a floral padded jacket, very cute."
"I was the one who named you."
"Chonglou, the seven-leaf-one-flower was the medicine used to save your father at the time. It is cold in nature and bitter in taste, and can treat snake and insect bites."
These words struck Li Chonglou's heart like colossal waves.
He had never known that he had met his Master when he was still swaddled, and that his Master had even named him.
But why had he never mentioned this in his previous life?
Was it deliberate concealment?
Or was it because someone was monitoring him at the time, or perhaps the events of his past and present lives were vastly different?
In an instant, Li Chonglou's mind was in turmoil.
Even Lin Ying looked astonished, as she had never heard these past events before.
When she was young, she only knew that her father was often away, rarely seen in a year, and she lived with her grandparents.
She never imagined that her little junior brother had such a fateful connection with her father.
Then what about his father?
What exactly happened?
An unprecedented strong curiosity made her want to hear more.
Lin Zhendong did not withhold anything and continued after a pause: "Your father, grateful for saving his life, wanted to repay me."
"It so happened that it was the late nineties, and everyone was going to the city to work. Your father wanted to go too."
"I also happened to need an assistant, and he was hardworking, so I let him follow me."
"For three consecutive years, he accompanied me across more than half of the country, and finally found the most mysterious tomb in history."
"The tomb of Wu Zetian!"
Upon hearing this, Li Chonglou's brow furrowed sharply, and he asked, "Is it the Qianling Mausoleum?"
The Qianling Mausoleum is the joint tomb of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, and Empress Wu Zetian. It is also the only Tang tomb that has not been excavated to this day. Since 1961, it has been designated as one of the first batches of key cultural heritage protection units by the state.
What was the point of finding such a tomb?
Unexpectedly, Lin Zhendong shook his head: "The Qianling Mausoleum is merely a decoy tomb to mislead people."
"What kind of person was Wu Zetian? Extremely suspicious. How could she allow her remains to be defiled by later generations?"
"When choosing a tomb site back then, she specifically ordered Yuan Tiangang and Li Chunfeng, the two leaders of Taoism, to select a place with auspicious feng shui. They both chose the same location."
"Legend has it that a copper coin's eye was pierced by a needle."
Li Chonglou and Lin Ying nodded simultaneously. They had both heard this historical anecdote.
It is said that Yuan Tiangang was ordered to find the burial site and searched the banks of the Yellow River but could not find a single auspicious spot.
Until he reached Guanzhong, where he observed the celestial phenomena late at night and saw purple energy surging towards the sky from a mountaintop, intersecting with the Big Dipper. He then pinpointed the location, ran to the mountaintop, marked it with a copper coin, and returned to report.
At the same time, Li Chunfeng observed the terrain at noon, noticing a mountain that sloped from south to north, resembling a young woman lying naked between heaven and earth, with all features complete.
Shocked, he ascended the mountaintop.
He used the sun to cast his shadow, taking advantage of the zi and wu hours.
He arranged pebbles to form the Bagua pattern and pulled a hairpin from his head, inserting it into the point where the two fish intersected, and then returned to report.
Later, Wu Zetian sent people to check, and the locations chosen by the two were actually the same.
Thus, the Qianling Mausoleum was built there.
Most people accept this legend as fact, believing that Wu Zetian was buried in the Qianling Mausoleum.
But Lin Zhendong's words clearly overturned this theory.
"That's right. Wu Zetian, being so suspicious and self-confident, how could she allow such a legend to spread? Unless it was deliberately fabricated!" Li Chonglou realized instantly.
Whether the Qianling Mausoleum was real or not, he couldn't be sure, and it wouldn't be excavated for examination for many years to come.
But since his Master said so, he must have his reasons.
Following this line of reasoning, it was indeed highly probable.
"Yes, that's exactly right. Wu Zetian wanted everyone to believe she was buried in the Qianling Mausoleum, but in reality, it was only her cenotaph," Lin Zhendong said with a look of satisfaction. "Her true burial place, however, was in the Kunling!"
"And the Kunling was chosen by the eminent monk Shen Xiu of the Northern School of Buddhism at that time."
"Wu Zetian once said, 'Buddhism should be above Taoism, and fine clothing should be worn before the Taoist crown.' Her reverence for Buddhism was known to all. She even wrote an opening preface to the Heart Sutra and proclaimed herself a reincarnation of Maitreya."
"How could she possibly have allowed a Taoist to find a burial site for her? This is the most basic common sense."
These words, supported by reason and evidence, instantly made Li Chonglou and Lin Ying's eyes gleam.
This story was incredibly fascinating, and from what his Master said, the Kunling was found by him and his father together.
Then what happened?
Did they enter?
"You must be thinking that your father had an accident in the tomb," Lin Zhendong saw through Li Chonglou's thoughts and shook his head. "No, he did not."
"I suspected at the time that the Shi Bo Qiong had been obtained by Wu Zhao and hidden in the Kunling."
"Together with him, we determined the direction and used extraordinary means to infiltrate the tomb."
"Yet, we still found nothing."
"Then, just as we were preparing to exit the tomb, an accident occurred."
"As your father was exiting the main burial chamber, he accidentally stepped on the Six Paths of Reincarnation curse laid by Shen Xiu on the ground, and he vanished before my eyes."
Li Chonglou frowned sharply: "Vanished into thin air?"
"A living person, how could they disappear? Did they fall into some hidden pit?"
Li Chonglou couldn't comprehend Lin Zhendong's words. Even though he could adapt to the preposterous idea of rebirth and time travel, he couldn't believe in the concept of vanishing into thin air.
Because a person's body is matter, not a fleeting energy like a soul.
"Little junior brother, don't worry. I'm sure my father investigated the reason," Lin Ying said, placing her delicate hand on his shoulder to comfort him as she saw his agitated expression.
"I did carefully examine that spot. There were no cracks, not even any mechanisms," Lin Zhendong continued. "Apart from the runes on the ground, there was nothing unusual. I even stepped on it myself, but there was no change whatsoever."
"I was also terribly frightened at the time and could only retreat from the tomb."
"Strangely enough, after I retreated, the location of the tomb became disoriented. I searched for many years afterward but could never find the correct entrance again."
"Even the hole I dug myself disappeared."
Speaking of this experience, Lin Zhendong's expression was filled with self-deprecation.
He had achieved success at a young age and was always proud of himself, understanding all aspects of the innate Bagua and knowing everything about astronomy and geography.
Yet, he was defeated by a tomb and lost a person.
This was a lifelong regret and source of guilt for him.
Therefore, upon seeing Li Chonglou, he was greatly shocked. He felt it was a divine arrangement, a guiding hand of fate.
He was born to be his disciple.
Or perhaps, it was to resolve this lingering issue for himself.
The time had come to reveal this matter completely.