392: Chapter 392: The Ultimate Secret of the Ancient Tomb – Second Update!
392: Chapter 392: The Ultimate Secret of the Ancient Tomb – Second Update!
The second update!
Suddenly, a cluster of flames erupted, illuminating the surroundings of Ye Chenfeng.
Ye Chenfeng looked down and his face changed drastically.
Because what he saw himself soaking in was not a pool of water at all, but clearly a blood pool.
Blood!
Fresh blood emitting a strong fishy smell!
It was a full blood pool!
The blood pool wasn’t large, about the size of a small swimming pool, but when it was all filled with fresh blood, probably anyone would feel terrified.
Ye Chenfeng furrowed his brows, feeling as though he had swallowed a fly.
“How long has this blood been here?”
Ye Chenfeng muttered to himself because he realized this blood was different from any he had seen before, it could exist for a long time without drying up.
Feeling gloomy inside, Ye Chenfeng endured the nauseous feeling and climbed out of the blood pool.
He ignited his lighter and looked up, only to be stunned in an instant.
Because right above him on the cavern walls was a circular protrusion, and along the edges of the protrusion were long, grooved channels that extended down from above, ultimately converging into the blood pool.
Ye Chenfeng understood that above his head was probably a huge stone mill, where the blood of young boys and girls, crushed inside, would flow down through the channels and finally gather into the blood pool.
So, after all the effort, he had arrived beneath the grinding plate.
Ye Chenfeng couldn’t help but shake his head with a wry smile.
Turning his attention away, Ye Chenfeng started to examine the environment around him.
The lone dog also quietly poked its head out, its eyes rolling around as it surveyed everything.
Ye Chenfeng was puzzled – wasn’t it scared to death when it approached the grinding plate earlier?
Why did it now dare to stick its head out?
The cave was not large, but it had everything, complete with stone tables, stone chairs, and stone beds.
Even more, there were shelves carved out of the stone walls on the side, laden with a large number of books and countless bottles and jars.
Most crucially, there was a bronze cauldron placed at the center of the area, engraved with complex patterns, and beside the cauldron were six corpses, their flesh long decayed, leaving only bone frames and clothes.
Judging by the clothes, they should be three men and three women, and they were still holding strange fans in their hands.
The bronze cauldron seemed as if it had been cast there, probably without a bottom, connected to the ground below, leading who knows where.
Moreover, the lid of the bronze cauldron lay scattered to one side, shattered in pieces, somewhat resembling the scene of a cauldron explosion.
All of this led Ye Chenfeng to believe that they seemed to be in the process of making an elixir.
Considering this was the Qin Dynasty, Ye Chenfeng immediately suspected that they might have been attempting to create the Elixir of Life, and the fresh blood of the young boys and girls in the blood pool was probably used as a catalyst for the medicine.
Emperor Qin Shihuang had once dispatched a vast amount of wealth, manpower, and resources to have Xu Fu search tirelessly for the Elixir of Life.
Under such a context, Ye Chenfeng’s suspicions were not strange.
“Boom!”
Suddenly, a loud boom rang in his ears, startling the fully on-guard Ye Chenfeng.
And then the area before his eyes suddenly brightened, as the light grew brighter and the range of its spread wider, eventually illuminating the entire cave.
There were actually several karst caves around the cavern, dark and mysterious, and it was unknown where they could lead.
“The Bronze Cauldron!”
Ye Chenfeng’s gaze sharpened as he discovered the source of the light was the bronze cauldron.
Through some small holes, he could see that something had started burning inside the cauldron.
This really gave Ye Chenfeng quite a shock, the object that had existed for thousands of years had suddenly started burning on its own.
However, it didn’t take long for Ye Chenfeng to consider another possibility, that the fire inside was Earth Fire.
It is said that ancient people or some practitioners, such as doctors who made elixirs, always used Earth Fire for their alchemy.
Being beneath the Tianshan mountain range, deep within the earth’s layers, the presence of Earth Fire was only natural.
Drawing close to the Bronze Cauldron, Ye Chenfeng couldn’t help but survey the scene inside.
The fire blazed fiercely, resembling the rolling of magma.
That’s right!
It was Earth Fire!
“Woof woof woof…”
The dog seemed to get excited as it approached the Bronze Cauldron, barking incessantly.
Ye Chenfeng glanced at the dog and pointed at the flames inside, “What’s the matter?”
The dog stretched out its cute little paws to point in a direction not far off, and Ye Chenfeng’s gaze immediately followed, finding another corpse dressed in brocade, clearly someone of great wealth and status.
Ye Chenfeng stepped forward and saw that the corpse was lying on the ground, reduced to a mere skeleton with a long knife stuck in its back—rusty from the ages.
Clearly, the person had been stabbed in the back and killed.
Ye Chenfeng was even more puzzled, as the material of the long knife was definitely not from the Qin Dynasty period, it was at least several centuries later.
This meant someone had entered here after the fact and killed him.
But clearly separated by several hundred years, how could two people so far apart in time meet, and how could this person have survived for so long?
“The dead deserve respect, the body shouldn’t just be left lying around!” Ye Chenfeng stepped forward, intending to move the corpse.
“Woof woof woof…”
The dog called out again, and upon a closer look, Ye Chenfeng noticed two bamboo slips tucked under the corpse.
With curiosity, Ye Chenfeng picked up the bamboo slips.
The script was naturally in small seal script, and due to the incident with the Ancient Tomb Key, Ye Chenfeng had a deep understanding of it, and was basically able to comprehend the content on the slips.
This bamboo slip appeared to be this person’s autobiography, recording his life story.
“Gan Luo!”
The next second, Ye Chenfeng’s eyes filled with shock and panic.
Because he discovered a name: Gan Luo.
Gan Luo was a figure with significant notoriety, known as a child prodigy.
Appointed as a Senior Minister at twelve, and as a chancellor at fourteen, he was a famed politician during the time of the State of Qin.
However, he had another identity; he became a student of Lv Buwei and recognized Xu Fu as his master, and could be said to be Xu Fu’s only disciple.
Xu Fu was the last disciple of the Valley Ghost, practicing the Fasting and Immortality Cultivation Technique, in pursuit of eternal life.
At this point, Ye Chenfeng seemed to have realized something.
“I studied the ways of cultivating immortality under my master’s guidance and yearned for eternal life.
Later on, my master was dispatched by Emperor Qin Shi Huang to the sea in search of Immortal Elixirs to make the Elixir of Life; he never returned.
However, I managed to decipher the secrets of the Elixir of Life and the secrets of longevity from the ancient texts my master left!”
“Hiss!”
Reading this, Ye Chenfeng couldn’t help but sharply inhale.
An actual Elixir of Life existed, truly worthy of the first prodigy—it turned out he could concoct the Elixir of Life.
“Three hundred boys and girls’ fresh blood as catalyst, several kinds of Divine Medicines as main ingredients, and the Bronze Cauldron as the Medicine Cauldron, all of these I have gathered.
The only thing missing is the Essence Fire produced by the Spirit of the Earth Dragon Vein.
Only with this Essence Fire can the concoction succeed.”
Continuing to read on, Ye Chenfeng narrowed his eyes.
Because Gan Luo had mentioned two words: Dragon Vein.