Walking by the Abyss on Thin Ice

Chapter 26 – Tian Dao Yuan Ge Long

One person and four foxes held onto a rope and were lifted up into the sky. After a while, they landed on a cliff. On one side, the cliff was steep like a blade, while on the other side, there was a gentle slope with a murmuring stream flowing down from it.

The stream merged with other streams flowing down from the mountains at the foot of the mountain and turned into a river that flowed from west to east towards the valley.

Su Yun had never been here before and dared not move. He kept asking, "What did you see? What did you see?"

For a blind person, there was a map in their mind, but only the area where they lived was lit up, and the rest was a dark and chaotic void.

The terrain of the Zanglong Tomb was steep and difficult to climb. Su Yun had never been here before, and even though it was still early afternoon in autumn, his mind was filled with darkness and the unknown.

He tried to open his eyes wide, but he couldn't see anything. He could only sense that there was a primordial behemoth lurking in the darkness, fierce and terrifying.

He was anxious and asked repeatedly, but no one answered him.

After a while, Hua Hu was the first to come back to his senses and muttered, "Xiao Yun, we saw a dragon... there really is a dragon here!"

Upon hearing his voice, Su Yun's heart finally calmed down.

Hua Hu described the geography of the Zanglong Tomb in detail, helping Su Yun quickly construct a map of the tomb in his mind. The other fox demons listened quietly without interrupting. If Hua Hu missed anything, Hu Buping couldn't help but add a few words.

This was a habit formed over many years.

Since Hua Hu and Su Yun became classmates, Hua Hu often told him about the geography near Tianmen Town and then took him for a walk. Su Yun became familiar with the surrounding geography and wouldn't get lost.

Their relationship was the best.

One person and one fox, one speaking and one listening, Su Yun quickly understood the general geography of the Zanglong Tomb, and the map in his mind had a rough outline.

There really was a dragon in the Zanglong Tomb. He had sensed a primordial behemoth in the darkness earlier and hadn't been mistaken.

The Zanglong Tomb was aptly named because there was indeed a dragon buried here, but it was also misleading because there was no tomb for the dragon here. The Zanglong Tomb was just a long and tall earthen slope, about two or three zhang high and a hundred feet long, covered with trees and thorns.

The dragon that fell from the sky crawled from the Duolong Valley to here and died of its injuries. The nearby residents probably only buried it hastily and didn't build a tomb for it. After experiencing who knows how long of weathering, the dragon's bones were exposed from the earthen slope, especially the dragon's skull, which was almost completely exposed and even had two trees growing in its eye sockets that two people could hug.Although the trees in the Zang Long Ling are dense and lush, it's strange that there are no birds, beasts, or even insects to be seen!

Walking here gives people a creepy feeling, as if some extremely ferocious ancient beast could jump out at any moment and tear them apart.

"There's a house next to the Zang Long Ling."

Hua Hu continued to describe the scenery of the Zang Long Ling, saying, "The house is made of wood and stone, with two buildings of seven rooms, three rooms in one building on the east side of the Zang Long Ling, and four rooms in one building on the west side. The house should have been abandoned for a long time, it's very dilapidated, and the wood has almost rotted away. There are also some stone tablets on the mountain, scattered around, some of which have fallen over."

"Thank you, Second Brother Hua."

Su Yun constructed the appearance of the seven-room house in his mind and asked, "Why is there a house here when people rarely come?"

Hua Hu was also puzzled, "Not to mention people, even animal tracks can't be seen. This dragon is only bones left, but still looks fierce. Why would anyone choose to live here?"

Su Yun's heart moved slightly. This dead dragon couldn't have been buried near someone else's village, so the house could only have been built later.

Apart from guarding the tomb, there was only one possibility for building near the Zang Long Ling.

"Somebody wanted to steal the dragon's body. But the dragon's body was too big, and they couldn't dig it out for a while, so they built a house here."

Su Yun thought for a moment and said, "The nearby people have no connection to this dragon, so naturally they wouldn't guard the tomb for it. Therefore, they could only have come to steal the dragon's body."

Hu Buping said quickly, "The dragon's bones are clearly here, why didn't they steal them?"

"Maybe it's because they couldn't move it. Or maybe they died suddenly while digging up the dragon's body."

Hua Hu thought for a moment and said, "After all, Di Gong said that the dragon's spirit flew out to save the village's food. After the dragon died, its spiritual energy was probably still guarding its body."

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Su Yun nodded, Hua Hu's guess was reasonable.

They walked down the hill carefully and headed towards the Zang Long Ling. Su Yun followed Hua Hu cautiously, trying to keep his footsteps steady, and said, "We shouldn't try to dig out the dragon bones or take anything away. Let's just take a look inside those few houses. I heard from Master Shui Jing that some powerful spirits can turn into ghosts and are very ferocious. But ghosts are afraid of sunlight and won't appear during the day. Therefore, we must leave before the sun sets!"

The four demon foxes looked at each other. Qing Qiuyue and Li Xiaofan hurried to cover Hu Buping's mouth. Hu Buping whimpered a few times, thinking, "The ghosts in Tianmen Town are even more ferocious than dragons and even appear during the day!"

One person and four foxes arrived at the bottom of the Zang Long Ling and entered the first building.

This building had four rooms, with scattered bones and clothes on the ground and ornaments left behind after they had rotted away.Su Yun squatted down and searched around, pondering deeply. "Judging from the position of their corpses, they must have encountered an unexpected accident and hurriedly tried to escape from the house. However, the thing chasing them was too fast, and they didn't have time to get out of the house before they died."

Hua Hu also made a discovery. "Their backs, ribs, and spines are all broken, and the cuts were made diagonally with an extremely sharp weapon from behind. There were three such weapons used at the same time, and the wounds are almost parallel. This person was cut into four pieces..."

Su Yun felt around and said, "There's no such weapon. The wounds were made by claws."

Hua Hu laughed, "Little Yun, how could a monster with extremely sharp claws appear in this house with these people? Although this house is big, it can't accommodate such a huge creature! Unless..."

"Unless it's intangible."

Su Yun said, "Spirits are intangible. If it's a dragon claw, then it's possible."

Hua Hu frowned and said, "Let's go inside and take a look!"

What surprised them was that the room was filled with bookshelves, and the shelves were cluttered with inkstones, ink, and paper. It didn't look like the room of a tomb raider, but more like the room of a well-read scholar.

Unfortunately, the pens had all rotted away, and the paper had turned into mud.

"They didn't come to steal the dragon corpse!"

Su Yun suddenly said, "They were scholars studying the principles of things!"

Hua Hu was stunned for a moment, then realized, "Yes! When Master Shuijing taught us the Crocodile Dragon Song, he took us to the Crocodile Dragon Pool to observe the form, habits, and movements of the crocodile dragon. He used the technique of Honglu to manipulate his own qi and blood to simulate the crocodile dragon and observe it with his own consciousness. Master Shuijing said that this is called studying the principles of things, studying the essence and principles of things through observation and experimentation in order to gain knowledge."

The other three little foxes also remembered Master Shuijing's lecture.

Qing Qiuyue quickly said, "Master Shuijing said that official schools with financial resources often organize scholars to search for the divine beasts they want to observe, study and learn from. Could it be that scholars came here to observe this dragon?"

Li Xiaofan looked at the bones on the ground and frowned. "Did they come from Shuofang City? How did they die here?"

Su Yun found a jade pendant under the rotting clothes of a corpse. The pendant had words on it, and he carefully examined it and said, "They came from an official school called Tiandao Academy."

The fox demons gathered around and saw that although the jade pendant was covered in dirt, it was still pure white and flawless, obviously made of valuable jade.

The front of the jade pendant had the words "Tiandao Academy" with cloud and thunder patterns around it, and the back was carved with a half-opened scroll, which was quite exquisite."The official school in Shuofang City is called Tiandao Academy...the name is quite grand."

Hua Hu said, "The jade plaques are of good quality. We might be able to sell a few for five zhu coins. Let's look for more! We will definitely need money when we enter the city in the future!"

The fox demons searched around and found a few more jade plaques, all from Tiandao Academy, but they were all damaged. Only the one Su Yun found was intact.

They didn't find anything else, so they left and went to the second building.

The building was on the other side of the dragon's tail, with the two buildings facing each other. They were probably responsible for observing the dragon from different angles.

A few hundred steps away from the dragon's tail was a sunken valley. Hua Hu leaned over and saw huge claw marks on both sides of the valley!

Each claw mark was several meters deep into the rock, stretching for several zhang. The stone looked like it had been cut by the sharpest knife, shocking to the eye.

They guessed right. The dragon that fell from the sky landed in the Fallen Dragon Valley, struggling and crawling all the way here before taking its last breath.

"What caused such a divine dragon to be injured and die here?" Hua Hu muttered.

As they approached the second building, they suddenly saw a limping black-clad man walking towards them. The four foxes cried out in alarm and took defensive postures.

"Senior Snake."

Su Yun's heart moved slightly and he bowed, "Senior invited us to watch the ceremony last night. We watched for a long time and gained a lot. Thank you for taking care of us, senior."

Hua Hu was shocked and whispered, "Little Yun, are you saying he's the village's communal meal? How did he change his appearance?"