"It's a bit troublesome to explain."
Li Miao stroked his chin, rubbing it back and forth.
"You don't understand Witchcraft, but because I have an adopted daughter who plays with this stuff, I know a bit."
"Let's put it this way."
Li Miao pointed at Yongjie, then pointed in the direction of Shaolin Temple.
"Ge Pu Qi is already dead, and the Witchcraft is now residing in Master Yongjie's heart."
"If the Witchcraft dies, Ling'er dies."
"If the Witchcraft doesn't die, in about seven or eight years, Ling'er will become the Miao King."
An Ziyang sighed.
"So that's how it is..."
There were still seven or eight years, and as the Abbot of Shaolin Temple, Yongjie had a good chance of finding a solution within Shaolin Temple itself.
Besides, Li Miao was only thirty-five years old now; in seven or eight years, he might even become an immortal. Would he still be afraid of not being able to solve a small Witchcraft?
So An Ziyang wasn't very worried; instead, he let out a long breath.
Li Miao wasn't too worried about this either and turned to look at An Ziyang.
"Master Yongjie still needs some time to recover. He improved his martial arts through an unorthodox path, and the price was not small. He was also quite exhausted just now, so let him rest here."
"Let's go find the people from the Twelve Sect Branches and have a chat."
The Miao King was dead, and most of the Witchcraft stored in the pupa chamber had also been destroyed. The inheritance of Witchcraft was basically cut off. Li Miao's initial purpose in coming to Miao territory was half fulfilled.
The rest was to find the Great Witches of the Twelve Sect Branches, obtain the method to resolve the hidden danger on Xiaosi, and then deal with these people. After that, the matters in Miao territory would be concluded.
An Ziyang, however, remembered something and said,
"Master, just now in the passage, I found a hollow space. It looked like a secret chamber, deliberately hidden by someone."
"Oh?"
Li Miao raised his eyebrows.
"Let's go take a look."
So the two of them left Yongjie and went straight into the passage, finding the mark An Ziyang had made.
Li Miao squatted down and pressed his palm onto the ground.
After a while, he lifted his hand and stood up.
"There are no mechanisms; it's sealed off inside."
"Rather than a secret chamber, it looks more like a tomb."
With that, he punched out, the force contained, creating a hole in the ground just big enough for one person to enter. He then made another sideways hole nearby, using his true qi to pump air into it.
Only when the air blowing out from the sideways hole no longer smelled stale did Li Miao jump down. An Ziyang lit a fire starter and followed closely.
The two descended to the ground and looked around by the light of the fire.
Upon seeing this, An Ziyang lowered his voice and whispered to Li Miao,
"Master, there's someone behind you."
Li Miao turned his head to look and smiled.
"A dead person."
"A dead person?"
An Ziyang was surprised and turned to look closely.
He saw the person sitting cross-legged on a futon, dressed in sackcloth, with an open chest. His shoulders were broad, and his arms almost reached below his knees. His skeleton was extremely robust; even sitting, he was level with An Ziyang's chest, and even Li Miao appeared more refined in comparison.
His hair was disheveled, beneath which were ink-black thick eyebrows and prominent cheekbones. Although he was gaunt, he was as majestic as a sick tiger.
However, as An Ziyang observed closely, he noticed that a thin layer of dust had accumulated all over the person's body, his chest showed no rise and fall, and his skin even shimmered with an abnormal oily sheen.
An Ziyang sniffed carefully: "Wax?"
"Is this a wax figure?"
"No, it's a corpse sealed in wax."
"Who is this person? Why is he in such close proximity to the Miao people's pupa chamber? And who preserved his body here?"
Li Miao was currently observing a wall nearby. Hearing An Ziyang's questions, he turned back and smiled.
"You are young, and your family has no legacy. He was already dead before you were born, so it's normal that you don't know."
Li Miao pointed at the person.
"This person's name is Yang Lixuan."
"He was the Ming Cult Leader before Ji Tianrui, and also the last Ming Cult Leader with the surname 'Yang'."
"It's him!?"
An Ziyang couldn't help but turn to look at this legendary figure.
If one were to discuss the most deserving person to die in the martial arts world over the past fifty years, there would likely be some debate. But if one were to ask who was the person most people wanted to kill, it was undoubtedly Yang Lixuan.
When he was active in the martial arts world back then, he plundered more households than the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards).
You can imagine how deserving of death he was.
Back then, Master Xing Chi led the charge, and the Five Great Factions jointly attacked the Ming Cult. The experts from the five factions disregarded their prestige and exhausted him in seven or eight rounds of continuous battle, finally killing him at the Ming Cult's main altar.
But, shouldn't this person's body have long turned to ashes in the great fire at the Ming Cult's main altar? How could it appear here?
And who transported his body here?
Li Miao smiled.
"Who else could it be?"
"A few days ago, I killed a person named Yang at Shaolin Temple."
"He said that before the Five Great Factions attacked the Ming Cult, Yang Lixuan had already been poisoned by Ji Tianrui. That's why he didn't escape, and that's why he lost to the experts of the Five Great Factions."
"Then, how was Ji Tianrui able to poison Yang Lixuan?"
"Yang Lixuan was the Ming Cult Leader; back then, countless people in the martial arts world wanted to kill him. How could he not guard against someone poisoning him on a daily basis? How close was Ji Tianrui's relationship with Yang Lixuan back then to bypass Yang Lixuan's precautions?"
"Thirty years ago, when Ji Tianrui first appeared, he possessed pure and unadulterated inherited Ming Cult martial arts. Who taught him these martial arts?"
"The Miao King before Yongjie's wife gave birth to Ji Tianrui. With whom did she have him?"
Li Miao's words were not only questions for An Ziyang but also a way to sort out the clues.
After the questions were asked, the answer naturally emerged.
"Ji Tianrui's father... is Yang Lixuan!"
An Ziyang looked at Yang Lixuan's corpse and exclaimed.
Li Miao nodded.
"It should be correct; only this can explain all the previous questions."
"Where did Ji Tianrui's Ming Cult martial arts come from? It was taught to him by the Cult Leader, Yang Lixuan."
"Ji Tianrui is the son of the Miao King, so why did he appear in the Ming Cult and even become its leader? Because he was originally Yang Lixuan's son."
"And precisely because of this, he was able to poison Yang Lixuan."
Li Miao also looked at the lifelike corpse.
"Before Ji Tianrui, the person who connected the Ming Cult and the Miao people was the Ming Cult Leader, Yang Lixuan."
"It wasn't until his body appeared here, the origin of the Miao people's Witchcraft inheritance, the nest of the Miao King, that I finally confirmed this point."
"The person who transported Yang Lixuan's body here and preserved it was either his mistress, the former Miao King Ge Pu Duo, or the thoroughly dead former Ming Cult Leader, Ji Tianrui."
An Ziyang frowned and pondered for a moment, then asked again,
"But why did Ji Tianrui want to kill Yang Lixuan?"
"And why did Yang Lixuan combine with the Miao King to give birth to a son who didn't bear his surname, and even train him into such an expert?"
Li Miao smiled and surveyed the secret chamber.
"Ji Tianrui led me here, so naturally, she has prepared the clues."
"The answer is within this secret chamber."