Han Yu exhaled slowly and returned the crystal into the ring, a thoughtful frown forming on his face. "So it recognizes its master too, just like the ring."
He began counting them, noting the sheer quantity.
There were roughly ten thousand of these red crystals, each one faintly pulsating with that strange inner light. He didn’t know their purpose, but anything that reacted to Qi in such a complex manner had to be valuable.
Perhaps even priceless.
"Whatever these are," he muttered, "they were worth hoarding."
Moving on, Han Yu began to explore another section of the ring. Rows of jade bottles and pill gourds lined an entire shelf. When he opened a few, the rich fragrance of dicinal herbs and alchemical essences filled the air.
There were Qi-restoring pills in abundance, neatly labeled and sealed in small jade containers. Healing pills of various grades were also stored there, from minor recovery types to advanced regenerative ones.
Further inspection revealed defensive enhancent pills, which could temporarily harden one’s skin like stone or boost reaction speed. But alongside these beneficial pills, Han Yu found sothing else; bottles marked with faint skull symbols.
Poison pills.
He pulled one of them out, the black-glazed bottle cool in his hand. The sll that escaped when he uncorked it made his throat constrict.
COUGH!
"That’s nasty!" Han Yu reckoned it slled worse than Fatty Kui’s socks after a long training day.
It was potent enough that he sealed it again imdiately.
"Poison and antidote both... you were either an assassin or soone who never trusted anyone," he murmured grimly.
Next ca the tools; formation plates, talisman brushes, and forging instrunts. He saw strange tal rods, small furnaces, and even several black stones that radiated heat. It was a miniature treasury, everything a cultivator could possibly need to operate independently.
Finally, he ca across a cluster of scrolls and books tied neatly with red silk. And among them lay a simple black token.
It was oval-shaped, carved from obsidian, and had a faint crimson sheen under the moonlight.
Han Yu reached out and picked it up, sensing the faint ripple of spiritual intent within it. It was an identity token, without a doubt. Every sect and organization used such items to verify mbership.
He turned it over curiously, and what he saw next made his stomach tighten.
On the back of the token was a symbol: a moon with a deep wound cut across it, and crimson lines trailing down like flowing blood.
"This..." Han Yu froze.
He had seen that symbol before.
Not on people, but on stone towers, the sa towers that had stood ominously above the grand tomb they had all entered.
A cold realization began to take hold. "This... can’t be a coincidence," he whispered.
The enemy he had killed, the treasures he carried, and now this token... all of it pointed to one terrifying conclusion.
Could it be that the tomb they entered was not a random ruin left behind by a lone immortal, but rather the resting place of an entire sect?
He flipped the token again, this ti looking at the front.
There was another symbol etched there, one identical to the markings on the robes of the black-robed attackers. Strange characters were carved beside it, glowing faintly with spiritual energy, but Han Yu couldn’t read them.
They seed written in an ancient script, perhaps one that had vanished long before his era.
His heart pounded as his thoughts spiraled. "If this really is their insignia, then that ans..."
He trailed off, the truth dawning on him.
"They weren’t invaders," he murmured. "They were guardians."
The realization hit him like a hamr.
The so-called "immortal tomb" they had risked everything to explore might not have been a treasure trove for outsiders at all... it was the burial site of a powerful sect, perhaps one that had perished in an ancient war.
The black-robed n had not been tomb raiders, but protectors of what was left. It could also be possible they were the descendants of the sect the immortal belonged to.
There were far too many questions that needed ti and more information to resolve. But there was one thing for sure... It was that Han Yu and the others were the trespassers.
He sat there in stunned silence, the weight of it sinking in. The red crystals, the powerful treasures, the poisoned pills... all of it began to make sense. These were remnants of a force that had once thrived in secret, their history now buried beneath the ruins of ti.
Han Yu clenched his fist around the token. The faint blood-red moon etched into it seed to glow under his touch, pulsing once before fading again.
A shiver ran through him as he realized the enormity of what he had uncovered.
The tomb wasn’t a re inheritance. It was the grave of a sect that might have once ruled this land. And sohow, through his death and rebirth, he had beco tied to it.
Han Yu sat motionless for a while, his body leaning slightly against the roots of a nearby tree as the quiet night settled around him. His heartbeat still hadn’t completely steadied from what he had discovered.
The realization that the so-called immortal tomb might actually be the burial site of an entire sect was too much to take in all at once. He rubbed his face with both hands, exhaling deeply, trying to compose himself.
There would be ti to unravel that mystery later. For now, there was a more pressing issue before him... his identity.
He looked down at the smooth, jet-black token resting in his palm, its faint crimson glow pulsing in rhythm with his heartbeat. The mont he touched it, he could sense a peculiar spiritual resonance, as though the object itself recognized him now.
"Let’s see who you were," Han Yu muttered softly, focusing his spirit Qi into the token.
The instant his Qi entered, the token trembled faintly and emitted a dim red light.
User Comments
0 comments from readers