Chapter 88: Mu Family’s Mu Wujiu |
“How does it feel?”
This time, Elder Mu did not remain as silent as a stone statue. Instead, he took the initiative to speak.
Over these past fourteen years, Li Shun had often talked with “Qiqi,” so he had not lost the ability to converse.
“Qiqi” was the name Li Shun had given the tree-horse beneath him.
Li Shun thought for a moment, then answered seriously:
“The scenery is beautiful, but there is no one here. Eternal and unchanging for ten thousand ages... truly rather dull.”
This answer seemed somewhat beyond Elder Mu’s expectations. He froze for a moment.
Then he muttered Li Shun’s words under his breath.
“Eternal and unchanging for ten thousand ages, truly rather dull. Hahaha...”
Elder Mu’s weathered face, carved with countless lines of age, relaxed as he burst into laughter.
His laughter continued without pause, echoing above the burial mound for a long time.
“You are stronger than Mu Wujiu.”
After the laughter abruptly ceased, Elder Mu said this.
“Mu Wujiu? Who is that?” Li Shun asked, baffled.
“This is Mu Wujiu’s tomb. Who do you think he is?” Elder Mu stared at Li Shun with clouded eyes, a trace of mockery in his tone.
“Mu Wujiu... the Qian Emperor?”
Li Shun’s mind shook violently upon hearing this.
At this moment, he finally learned the true name of the Qian Emperor.
But immediately afterward, a bolt of realization flashed through his mind.
“The Mu bloodline...”
“Mu Wujiu.”
“Could it be...?”
Li Shun’s mouth fell open in shock.
“That’s right. The tomb guardians are all descendants of the Mu family.”
“Whether direct lineage or collateral branches, so long as they carry Mu blood, all were relocated into the Imperial Mausoleum.”
“That is the origin of the tomb guardian clan.”
“Heh heh heh. The Mu family truly produced a fine emperor!” Elder Mu’s voice was practically grinding with hatred, as if it carried resentment vast enough to drown the heavens.
“This...”
Elder Mu’s words confirmed Li Shun’s suspicions.
He could barely suppress the shock in his heart, while countless questions surfaced at once.
He had originally assumed the tomb guardian clan of Imperial Mausoleum Commandery were the descendants of those sinners who had fiercely resisted during the Qian Emperor’s conquest of the Seven Nations, enemies whose defiance had cost the Great Qian army dearly.
Yet unexpectedly... they were the Qian Emperor’s own family?
Why would he do such a thing?
It seemed to make no sense whatsoever.
Li Shun also finally understood why, in such a vast dynasty, no second royal heir could be found apart from the Qian Emperor himself.
It was not merely because the emperor had no children.
Anyone remotely related to him by blood had apparently been dragged into this Imperial Mausoleum to accompany him in burial.
“So the Qian Emperor is actually some distant relative of mine.”
“No wonder Elder Mu’s hatred runs so deep. Royal blood reduced to the lowest class of tomb guardians, imprisoned in the Imperial Mausoleum, never to see daylight.”
Li Shun was deeply shaken.
Only after a long while did his emotions gradually settle.
Then he cautiously asked:
“Then Old Elder, you are...?”
Elder Mu merely snorted coldly, unwilling to answer.
Li Shun did not dare press further.
“...Do you want to leave this place?”
After a brief silence, Elder Mu suddenly asked.
Li Shun’s face flashed with disbelief and joy.
“I can still get out?”
“The sealed burial earth only allows entry, never exit. Even I cannot violate that.”
Li Shun’s expression instantly froze.
“Then...”
He looked deflated.
“Then how could I possibly leave? Elder Mu, don’t tease me.”
“Heh heh, brat, don’t lose heart. The sealed earth forbids exit. But what if, one day, the seal is damaged?” Elder Mu’s face held no trace of jest.
“The seal damaged?” Li Shun’s heart stirred.
“If you live long enough, you’ll see anything. When I was young, I personally witnessed a falling heavenly stone wipe out an entire nation. Before that happened, the world mocked that nation for constantly fearing the sky would fall.”
“So... staying alive is more important than anything.”
Elder Mu’s deeply wrinkled face itself seemed the greatest proof of those words.
“You borrowed two hundred years of lifespan. Only fifteen years have passed. Wait patiently. An opportunity may yet come.”
After saying this, Elder Mu fell silent again.
Li Shun only felt a slight chill upon realizing his borrowed lifespan had been seen through. He was not overly shocked.
One year within the sealed earth equaled one day in the Imperial Mausoleum.
Great Qian had existed for five hundred and seventy-three years. Within the sealed earth, that likely meant tens of millions of years had passed.
To survive across such an absurd stretch of time, either Elder Mu’s strength was unimaginably terrifying, or his lifespan had been fixed through some special means, much like this undying world within the sealed earth itself.
Either way, he had lived far too long.
Seeing through Li Shun’s actual borrowed lifespan was hardly impossible.
“There seems to be hidden meaning in Elder Mu’s words.”
“Even if I can live another hundred and eighty years, that only equals twenty-six days in the outside Great Qian. In less than a month, what could possibly happen in the Imperial Mausoleum?”
“He told me to stay alive... then I’ll wait.”
Though trapped within the sealed earth world, Li Shun did not find it especially unbearable.
His consciousness could still act through Fang Xun, allowing him to remain within a relatively normal flow of time.
In truth, these fourteen years of wandering felt more like rapidly passing scenes in a picture scroll than a deeply engraved memory.
Over the past half month, Imperial Mausoleum Commandery had undergone a thorough and meticulous inspection.
Meanwhile, Zhao Cheng had already returned ahead of schedule with the armor Li Shun had sent out.
However, there was still no news on whether Duanmu Qiuchu had successfully broken through.
As for what effect absorbing the inheritance within Wu Peng Armor would have on Li Shun, that remained unclear.
On the surface, it seemed the turmoil caused by Shentu Xin’s burning of the mausoleum had completely passed.
Yet Li Shun could faintly sense that this might merely be the brief calm before a storm.
“The one benefit of being trapped here for fourteen years is the massive harvest of Lengshan Grass in the Fangcun space.”
“It’s already surpassed five hundred stalks. Even Lengshan Venerables can practically be mass-produced now.”
“Strangely enough, from Fang Xun’s perspective, only fourteen days have passed. But Li Shun truly experienced fourteen full years.”
“And the Fangcun space reflects this contradiction as well.”
“The region where Li Shun is located genuinely underwent fourteen years of time. The increase in Lengshan Grass on the empty ground proves it.”
“But the other regions...”
Li Shun’s gaze fell upon Shentu Xin’s phantom.
The phantom remained submerged in the Heavenly Dao Severance Qi, tempering a specialized resistance.
Yet progress was excruciatingly slow. It still remained at Unbreakable Fortified Body.
“Perhaps if I fully focused my consciousness in one place, the time flow would unify.”
“But that would be far too torturous.”
Just as Li Shun was deep in thought, Elder Mu spoke again.
“Brat, do you know why I want you to leave here alive?”
Li Shun immediately focused himself. After some thought, he shook his head.
“This junior does not know.”
“If you can leave, go somewhere for me.”
“Find someone.”
Elder Mu’s voice drifted over, low and ghostly.