289 Drinking Wine and Reading Scripture in Front of the Grave
It was only late autumn in the Seven Blood Eyes, but it was already winter in Purple Earth.
The wind and snow drifted down, covering this ancient city that had existed for tens of thousands of years.
From afar, the dark red palaces and buildings seemed to be embedded in the boundless snow.
The entire land was covered in layers of snow and there weren’t many pedestrians on the streets. All of them were wearing thick clothes but they couldn’t sweep away the snowflakes that continued to fall, causing everyone to get white hair.
The falling snow and the numb expressions of the pedestrians fused into the environment, gradually creating an atmosphere of decline and oppression.
The tiled roofs of all the buildings in the city were like lonely islands in a sea of snow.
This place was Purple Earth.
This place was also the former imperial capital of the Nanhuang Continent.
Ten thousand years ago, there was a kingdom in the Nanhuang Continent called the Purple Green Kingdom. It had once unified the Nanhuang Continent and used the Flame Phoenix as its symbol. However, even it was unable to survive in this cruel chaotic world.
It collapsed due to internal strife and was buried in history.
As for the royal family back then and the wealth of their inheritance, they were divided up by those rebelling factions back then. It was the same for their bloodlines.
After the rebels divided up everything, they became orthodox. They formed eight large families and occupied Purple Earth. They also worshiped the totem of the Flame Phoenix as their god.
The size of the entire Purple Earth imperial city was about the size of three Seven Blood Eyes’ main city and was divided into eight areas.
They were the territories of the eight great families.
In each area, there was a building similar to a palace. They were the ancestral lands of these eight families.
Some of the family’s imperial palaces were surrounded by jade-green water filled with duckweed. There were lifelike dragons and phoenixes carved on the eaves of the palace.
Some imperial palaces had golden glazed tiles that shone dazzlingly under the winter sun. From afar, the double-eaved palace looked dazzling.
Compared to the Seven Blood Eyes, it was a completely different style.
Purple Earth was more like a rigid and stubborn old man who wore luxurious clothes. Everything was about rules, bloodline, and family traditions.
This was their way of survival in this chaotic world. It was completely different from the Seven Blood Eyes that only prioritized benefits, and it was not easy to tell which was better.
As a branch of the Seven Sects Alliance, the Seven Blood Eyes were inferior to Purple Earth at the start. As time passed, they gradually reached the same level.
Now, with Ancestor Xue Lianzi’s breakthrough, they surpassed Purple Earth in one go and even had the courage to start a war with the nonhuman races.
However, Purple Earth was different.
They liked to close themselves off and didn’t like others disturbing them. In fact, while they revered the fragmented face in the sky, they also looked down on all the forces in the outside world. They didn’t even fancy the Wanggu Continent.
They felt that their bloodline was the most noble and never thought that they were frogs at the bottom of a well.
Therefore, if the people who lived here didn’t have the bloodline that had been passed down, they wouldn’t have a future. Naturally, they wouldn’t have any energy and vitality. Servility slowly seeped into their souls and continued on for generations.
Grandmaster Bai was one of the few ambitious people in Purple Earth in the past countless years.
He was also the first person to break the traditional concept of the family and seek to develop together with the human alliance in the outside world.
His thoughts contradicted Purple Earth’s, and he paid a price for it, becoming a mortal.
However, he didn’t give up. With his incomparable talent in the Dao of plants and vegetation, he forcibly walked another path in a limited period of time.
Moreover, he developed a large number of pill formulas. In terms of the Dao of plants and vegetation, he, who was a mortal, had surpassed cultivators.
He could even be considered the number one alchemist in the Nanhuang Continent.
Even the Nascent Soul Peak Lord of the Second Peak of the Seven Blood Eyes admired Grandmaster Bai very much. Even someone like Old Master Seventh called him Grandmaster.
All of this showed that Grandmaster Bai’s attainments in alchemy had already reached the peak.
However, even so, he was still locked up by layers of rules in Purple Earth. There were many things he was powerless to do. Everything was because of his bloodline.
Grandmaster Bai wasn’t a direct descendant of the Bai family. He came from a collateral branch.
At that moment, the blizzard grew even heavier.
As the snowflakes drifted, more than ten people stood silently in the public cemetery in the city area where the Bai family was located. In front of them was a crystal coffin. Grandmaster Bai’s corpse lay inside and the wound between his brows had already been covered.
Although his body was enhanced by magic power and sealed within a crystal coffin, upon closer inspection, one could still see that Grandmaster Bai’s corpse was rotting and turning black.
This was a sign of being poisoned. This poison was very domineering and could speed up rotting.
Hence, the corpse couldn’t be kept for too long and had to be buried soon.
The thinness of his bloodline caused Grandmaster Bai to not have the qualifications to enter the family’s imperial mausoleum after his death. Grandmaster Bai also disdained this when he was alive. Many years ago, he had given the instructions to bury him in the public mausoleum after his death.
Most of the people present were standing silently, including Bai Yundong.
The people who were present were either Grandmaster Bai’s juniors or people who were close to him. There weren’t many of them, or maybe, one did not need to have many friends in their life. Three to five close friends were enough.
As the coffin was buried, the oppressive atmosphere around everyone in front of the grave became even more solemn. It was only when a young girl couldn’t control herself and cried that the oppression was broken.
The one crying was Ting Yu.
Two years had passed and she had already grown up. She was in her prime time and it should have been as carefree as ever. However, with Grandmaster Bai’s death, her sky collapsed.
She knelt in front of the grave and tears flowed down her face.
Beside her stood an 18 or 19-year-old youth. This youth had a tall and straight figure and an imposing appearance. His robe was extremely luxurious and the jade pendant on his waist emitted the light of a magic artifact.
He was Chen Feiyuan.
He was the eldest grandson of this generation of the Chen family. In reality, he was the one who pushed for the teleportation blockade after Grandmaster Bai’s death.
He clenched his fists tightly and his breathing was hurried. The killing intent in his eyes was extremely clear and intense.
Amidst their sorrow and anger, they didn’t notice that in an alley some distance away from this mausoleum, there was a middle-aged man looking at this place quietly.
The middle-aged man wore a thick hemp robe and looked ordinary. His face was a little sallow but his eyes revealed endless sorrow. His body was trembling slightly at this moment. His right hand grabbed the wall at the side so hard that the bricks shattered.
After a long time, the sky gradually darkened. As the sun gradually set and dusk was about to disperse, everyone in front of Grandmaster Bai’s grave silently left.
The last to leave were Tingyu, Chen Feiyuan, and Chen Feiyuan’s followers.
The middle-aged man silently walked forward. He didn’t look at the people who had left and moved closer to this public cemetery. On the way, he passed by Chen Feiyuan and Tingyu.
Chen Feiyuan supported Tingyu, who was still crying from extreme grief, and also noticed Xu Qing. However, in his sorrow, he didn’t pay much attention. This cemetery was very large and many people came to mourn every day.
This also made him even more indignant. His master was buried here, but he was helpless.
“Do you think he will come…” Tingyu wiped her tears and asked weakly.
“Him? Hmph, if he was coming, he would have arrived long ago. If he’s not here yet, it just means he is an ingrate like the others!” Chen Feiyuan didn’t need to think to know who Tingyu was talking about. He gritted his teeth and spoke.
Tingyu fell silent.
The middle-aged man silently walked past them until everyone behind him had left. He then arrived in front of Grandmaster Bai’s grave and looked at the tombstone with reddened eyes.
“Teacher…” The middle-aged man mumbled. His voice was hoarse as he knelt down toward the tombstone.
He was Xu Qing, who had teleported to Purple Earth!
After teleporting to Purple Earth, Xu Qing immediately learned of Grandmaster Bai’s burial and rushed over. However, he knew that his Daoist robe was too conspicuous and wasn’t conducive to tracking down the murderer.
Hence, he changed his appearance and arrived here.
Looking at the tombstone, Xu Qing felt a piercing pain in his chest. This pain grew deeper and deeper and began to spread throughout his body.
Up until now, he had only knelt before two tombstones. One was Captain Lei’s and the other was Grandmaster Bai’s.
“Teacher, I will find the murderer and the mastermind.” Xu Qing mumbled bitterly. After kowtowing to the tombstone, he took out a wine gourd and placed it in front of the tomb.
“Captain Lei said that you like to drink, so this disciple will accompany you.” As Xu Qing spoke, he picked up the wine gourd and took a sip. After that, he gently scattered it in front of the grave and placed it to the side.
“Teacher, I’ve already memorized the Grasswood Scripture you left behind. I’ll read them for you.”
“The Dao of Plants and Vegetation is one of the myriad manifestations of nature. It can be compared to a Great Dao and penetrates through the nature of all things and principles of the heavens.”
“The first plant is goldturn grass, also known as the three-leaf pearl or the coldscatter grass. It is the white water sedge that belongs to the cyperaceae-class of plants and is a perennial herb. It grows in forests under the hillsides and in spacious wet areas. It can be found in Lingyou, the southern part of Nanhuang, and the two continents of Guangling.”
“The second plant is the rhino-fire flower, also known as the cloud dream silk. It’s a perennial spiritual fire-type plant. Its effects consist of soothing the lungs and stopping coughs, mild detoxification, dispersion of bruises, and curing venomous snake bites or injuries from a fall.”
…
“The 137th plant, soul fusion fog, also known as closed heavenly eyes. It’s a high-level spirit herb born of fog. It can fuse a mark with the soul and is difficult to detect and remove. It’s the main ingredient of the Daybreak Scattered Decay Pill.”
Xu Qing mumbled softly and talked of the medicinal herbs he had memorized from the Grasswood Scripture.
In his daze, he seemed to have seen Grandmaster Bai’s figure appear in front of him again. Grandmaster Bai was drinking and smiling at him. His eyes were dignified but he couldn’t hide his relief.
“Night Corpse Leading Ox, also known as Poison Mountain Root Turtledove Chrysanthemum. It’s the stem and root of the chrysanthemum plant, the fine-veined Turtledove Chrysanthemum. It’s a wooden vine that grows in ravines of corpse mountain, cold streams, or jungles. Its taste is astringent and slightly warm when it enters the mouth. It has the feeling of rotting. It has the miraculous effect of dispelling pathogenic wind. However, it’s excessively poisonous. It’s a typical extreme Yin-Yang plant.”
A cold wind blew over and snowflakes fell one after another. Xu Qing’s voice echoed in front of Grandmaster Bai’s grave until night fell when his shadow transmitted a wisp of emotions.
It was telling him that it had found the culprit!
Xu Qing abruptly lifted his head and silently looked at Grandmaster Bai’s tombstone. He heavily kowtowed three times. The moment he stood up, his entire body emitted astonishing killing intent and he disappeared into the night.
Not long after he left, several figures arrived quickly from afar. At the front was Tingyu. Behind her were Chen Feiyuan and several of his followers.
“Tingyu, did you see wrongly? How is that possible? He’s a famous person in the Seven Blood Eyes now. How can he still remember Teacher?”
“There’s no mistake. I recognize his gaze. I thought about it properly when I got back. It must be him!”