Chapter 870: Ceremony Triggered

As soon as they entered the room, everyone felt the extremely dense water element. The air was thick with mist, making it difficult to see clearly into the distance.

What was even more noticeable, however, was an overwhelming sense of resentment, thick enough to send shivers down their spines and make their hair stand on end.

At the same time, chilly drafts seemed to sweep through the room, causing involuntary shivers. Bi Linglong hugged her arms, trembling.

Zu An couldn't help but ask, "Why is the resentment so strong?"

Mi Li furrowed her brows slightly. "Such intense resentment suggests either an injustice profound enough to cause snow in June, or an overwhelming hatred. Given the grandeur of this tomb, neither scenario should typically apply."

Zu An speculated, "Could it be an ancestor of the Qin King, or perhaps someone like Hu Hai?"

This was the ancestral ground of the Qin royal family, so finding former Qin kings here was quite normal.

After Qin Shihuang's death, Hu Hai ascended the throne, placing immense trust in the eunuch Zhao Gao. When rebellions erupted across the land and the empire's fate seemed sealed, Zhao Gao forced Hu Hai to commit suicide, using him as a scapegoat. Hu Hai must have felt incredibly wronged before his death, so such intense resentment would be understandable.

"That is certainly possible," Mi Li affirmed. During her time with Zu An, she had learned not only about the events of the Qin Dynasty after she was sealed but also much about the subsequent development of the Twenty-Four Histories. She was therefore well aware of Hu Hai's circumstances.

"With so much resentment, could it form a powerful ghost or a dangerous elemental creature?" Bi Linglong asked, a touch of worry in her voice. Her previous sword had just been severed by the Golden Wheel Spirit Orb, making her truly "once bitten, twice shy."

"No, it won't," Mi Li said, pointing to some newly discovered runes. "A master practitioner laid down formations here, preventing this resentment from ever coalescing into a spirit. It can only remain pure resentment."

Zu An and Bi Linglong went to examine them. Extremely intricate runes were everywhere. Neither of them understood runes, but the sheer precision and complexity of the symbols indicated they were undeniably the work of a formidable master.

At this moment, Mi Li seemed to sense something. She looked up towards a nearby spot where the chill was densest and a shimmering reflection was visible.

They walked closer and saw that it was a pond. At its bottom, a faint outline was visible, appearing to be a coffin.

Mi Li stood by the pond. After a moment of thought, she said to Zu An, "Use your Blue Duck skill to part the water. Let's go down and take a look."

Having explored a series of rooms, the Five Elements Grand Formation, and this imperial-level tomb, she was increasingly curious about the occupant's identity.

Zu An was taken aback. "The Blue Duck skill can be used this way?"

Mi Li replied, "Perhaps not for large rivers, but for this small pond, with your current cultivation, it's certainly possible. Since your Blue Duck skill is attuned to water elements, it shouldn't be difficult to achieve this. Use a little more imagination; don't just spend all your time thinking about holding girls underwater to give them air."

Hearing his words, Zu An, being thick-skinned, remained unfazed, but Bi Linglong wished she could disappear into a crack in the ground.

Under Mi Li's guidance, Zu An successfully parted the water in the pond, creating a gap wide enough for two people. Directly below was, naturally, the coffin.

Zu An couldn't help but marvel at how higher-level practitioners controlled and utilized power and elements; it was truly beyond the comprehension of those at lower levels. If not for her guidance today, he wouldn't have figured this out for many years to come.

Mi Li jumped down first, landing beside the coffin. Zu An and Bi Linglong quickly followed, and up close, they felt the intense resentment emanating from within even more strongly.

Zu An couldn't help but say, "Perhaps we don't need to open the coffin. What if some powerful monster is sealed inside..."

Before he finished speaking, Mi Li flicked her sleeve, and with a loud bang, the coffin lid was sent flying.

Zu An was speechless.

Well, it seemed he had spoken in vain.

Nevertheless, he looked inside with curiosity. By then, Mi Li had already opened the inner coffin lid.

"Huh?" Bi Linglong, standing nearby, exclaimed, for the occupant was not human.

More precisely, the upper half was human, while the lower half was a fish.

Equally astonishing was the tomb occupant's beautiful face. She had long blue hair and a crown made of coral and pearls on her forehead. Although there was no sign of life on her face, her peerless grace from when she was alive remained undiminished.

However, her brows were tightly furrowed, and her face was slightly distorted, clearly indicating she was filled with resentment before her death.

"A mermaid?" Zu An's eyes widened instantly. He had only seen them on television before and never imagined a real one could be so beautiful.

However, as air entered after the coffin was opened, her peerless beauty almost instantly disintegrated into dust, leaving only a crystal-clear, white skeleton.

"A beautiful skeleton..." He had often heard this term, but today he experienced it firsthand. The visual impact was simply too strong; Zu An even worried if he would be left with any psychological trauma.

Alas, even such a beautiful woman ultimately became just a pile of bones.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a little sad. He had never felt anything about immortality before, but now, he inexplicably began to understand those who pursued it.

Just then, his gaze suddenly focused on something. He reached his hand into the skeleton's clothes within the coffin.

Bi Linglong, standing nearby, had a strange look on her face. "She's dead. Isn't what you're doing a bit... improper?"

But she immediately realized she had misunderstood when she saw Zu An pull out a crystalline scale, as beautiful as a jade pendant.

"This thing looks a bit familiar," Zu An mused.

"What's wrong?" Mi Li asked.

"Nothing," Zu An said with a smile, placing the jade-like scale into his embrace. "Do you recognize the woman in the coffin?"

"No, I don't," Mi Li replied. "But judging by her attire, she must have been a very important figure among the mermaid race, perhaps even their empress. No wonder she received a funeral of this caliber." Seeing she wasn't an acquaintance, Mi Li lost interest. She casually closed the coffin lid and then thoughtfully ascended to the surface.

Zu An was about to follow, but Bi Linglong looked at the bottom of the coffin with a puzzled expression. "It seemed like a lot of water elemental power flowed along the surrounding formations to some unknown distant place just now," she said. "The previous rooms had similar situations. Could our actions have inadvertently triggered some kind of ritual?"

Zu An was startled and couldn't help but look at Mi Li. "Is that true?"

Although his cultivation was high, his fundamental knowledge in cultivation was not as solid as Bi Linglong's, who had been trained in a prominent family since childhood.

Mi Li was currently on the surface, observing something on the wall. Hearing his words, she replied nonchalantly, "Indeed."

Zu An, having just returned to the surface, couldn't help but feel puzzled. "If you knew, why didn't you take precautions beforehand?"

"We didn't disturb the coffins in the earth and fire element rooms, did we?" Mi Li replied. "This way, even if some unknown evil ritual is triggered, it will fail because it's incomplete. We can just use this opportunity to destroy it, preventing any major problems in the future."

Zu An laughed. "Master is indeed far-sighted. My admiration for you flows like an endless river..."

"Endless my foot!" Mi Li rolled her eyes. "Come quickly and look at these murals. They seem to describe Xu Fu's later sea voyage, where he found the mermaid race and brought back their princess or queen to present to Ying Zheng."

"No wonder there's so much resentment," Bi Linglong murmured. Thinking of the woman's fate, she suddenly felt a sense of empathy. Though she had appeared splendid as the Crown Princess, she had actually been trapped in someone else's scheme from beginning to end.

Just then, a series of rumbling sounds suddenly came from afar, and the entire room began to shake.

Mi Li's expression changed. "The five elements are extremely active, filling the entire palace," she exclaimed. "Could the formation have been triggered? But how is that possible?"

Meanwhile, in the previous fire-element room, the crystal coffin lay overturned on the ground, and the lifelike Fusu within was now nothing but a pile of bones.

He Li fumbled around in the coffin for a while, then took out a pile of burial items and handed them to a large man nearby. "Your Majesty, I found these treasures," he said.

Zhao Ruizhi scoffed, "Some rusty scrap metal? What kind of treasures are these?"

Items worthy of being buried with a prince were clearly not rusty scrap metal, but for an emperor with vast wealth, they were naturally unremarkable.

Having gained nothing in the previous earth-element room, and now seeing this body that had remained incorruptible for millennia, Zhao Ruizhi, who had hoped it would contain the secret to immortality, was naturally very disappointed.

Just then, a series of rumbling sounds came from afar, and the room began to shake repeatedly.

He Li and the two remaining Qi King's Mansion warriors all changed expressions. Could it be another room reconfiguration like before?

Zhao Ruizhi, however, looked into the distance with an excited expression. "It seems some formation mechanism has been triggered," he said. "I can feel the aura of life."

After speaking, he couldn't wait and instantly darted away.

He Li and his two companions hesitated for a while, but ultimately couldn't resist the allure of immortality and quickly followed.