Nine Star Hegemon Body Art (WN)
chapter-3820

“This is the real tomb?” asked Guo Ran.

Guo Ran assumed that the Heavenly Daos had simply wrapped up some areas. Unexpectedly, this looked more like an ordinary tomb, with the remains buried underground.

“A heavenly tomb contains something that the Heavenly Daos wished to be buried. Legend has it that only in an age of great loss will a heavenly tomb appear. The Heavenly Daos view all lifeforms within heaven and earth as their children. So, when too many lifeforms die all at once, the Heavenly Daos feel sorrow and bury some of them together,” said Mo Nian.

“Not necessarily. At the very least, I have never sensed any kindness from the Heavenly Daos,” said Long Chen, curling his mouth.

“Perhaps you’re an illegitimate child, so they don’t love you,” laughed Mo Nian. He also knew just how bad Long Chen’s luck was. For him, heavenly tribulation even became heavenly punishment. Mo Nian had never managed to figure out why the Heavenly Daos would treat Long Chen like that.

At this moment, they arrived at the cave entrance. This cave made out of bones was rather strange. The sides of the bones were in strange positions, matching each other from left to right. It didn’t look like something natural. It was more like an altar that someone made.

Mo Nian walked around this entrance for a long time, constantly scribbling something down. An image quickly appeared on the paper that made the others gasp.

This image was that of a giant fiendish devil. As for the cave entrance, it was the devil’s mouth.

Standing at just the cave mouth, they couldn’t see the full picture. But after Mo Nian drew this, they all felt chills.

“Not good. This is a death gate,” said Mo Nian.

“What are you talking about?” asked Long Chen.

“A tomb always has a life gate and a death gate. They are what maintain the function of the tomb. Let me put it to you this way: consider the tomb to be a living creature that needs to breathe air in and out. That will make sure it maintains its function. The life gate is where it breathes in from. It is life qi. The life qi nourishes the corpses, preventing them from rotting. If someone continuously offers sacrifice to the dead, their faith energy will allow the fallen’s heroic spirit to persevere. Such a heroic spirit can maintain the karmic luck of future generations. Moreover, the tomb will also have some treasures used to maintain that karmic luck and such… Cough, don’t look at me like that! I, Mo Nian, am not someone greedy for wealth. I simply pursue the truth of history through my archaeology!” cried Mo Nian when he saw them looking at him disdainfully. But they refused to believe him.

In order to cover up his embarrassment, he continued, “As for the death gate, it is where the death qi is expelled. The life qi is absorbed by the corpse, and then part of the body’s death qi is expelled. This death qi will contain the fallen’s resentment, hatred, unwillingness, anger, fear, and other negative emotions. Once they are mixed together into the death qi and expelled, the area outside the death gate naturally becomes a wasteland where not a single blade of grass can grow. The gravekeepers will always treat the death gate as more important than the life gate. Do you know why?” Mo Nian looked at them.

But even after waiting a long time, no one said anything. Mo Nian awkwardly asked, “Are none of you interested?”

“Oh? Why?” Xia Chen acted curious for him.

“Because the death gate has to be constantly cleaned up to make sure that the death qi is perfectly expelled. If it stays within the tomb, it will produce terrifying evil corpses. Even if it doesn’t reach the point of producing evil corpses, some smaller beasts or even insects might go in and be infected by that death qi. They’ll instantly die, but then they’ll be reborn as mutated existences. I often see some mutated insect corpses. Their teeth can tear through the strongest armor, and they’re even toxic. If you’re bitten by one, you’ll definitely die. This heavenly tomb has no one cleaning up the death gate. Furthermore, in all the areas around this entrance, we didn’t see a single skeleton. I’m worried that…”

Everyone’s heart thudded. “Are you saying that the skeletons might already turn into evil corpses and enter the tomb?”

“That is very possible. If my guess is correct, if we go in, we’ll immediately face immemorial evil corpses. With our current power, it’ll probably be no different than sending ourselves to our death,” said Mo Nian.

“Then let’s go in through the life gate!” Upon hearing about the possibility of encountering immemorial evil corpses, Guo Ran felt chills. He didn’t want to run into those immemorial monsters.

“We cannot. The life gate is on the other side of the Heavenly Boundary Line. We can’t go over there.” Mo Nian shook his head. He passed the map he had drawn to Guo Ran. As expected, the entire heavenly tomb was split in two by the Heavenly Boundary Line.

Mo Nian had calculated where the life gate was just now. It was on the other side of the Heavenly Boundary Line, perfectly facing the death gate.

“Then what can we do? Why don’t we just keep searching the outer region? It’s so huge that there’s more than enough space for us to look through,” proposed Guo Ran.

Long Chen shook his head and looked at the hairpin. “This senior’s beloved is within the tomb. After being entrusted with this mission, we must carry it out. Furthermore, we’ve already reached this point. Who cares about some life gate or death gate? How can we not take a look? I say, Mo Nian, can you not keep us all in suspense? We all know that graverobbing is your profession. Don’t act so mysterious. Just tell us what you want us to do.”

Toward the end, Long Chen looked at Mo Nian disdainfully. He refused to believe that the master graverobber would not have any way of dealing with this situation. Mo Nian was definitely setting up a suspenseful atmosphere intentionally to then display his abilities.

After being exposed by Long Chen, Mo Nian awkwardly said, “Cough, there is a way, but I’m just making sure that everyone is careful. After all, I’ve never gone into a heavenly tomb. We cannot be careless.”

“Careless my ass! You almost made me piss myself! Brother Mo, daddy Mo, can you not make things seem worse on purpose? This place is already frightening enough!” Guo Ran didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Ever since they entered here, Mo Nian had been setting up such an atmosphere. Guo Ran was incredibly tense. He felt like his soul might flee in terror.

“Then since everyone understands the danger, come over here. Wear this.” Mo Nian distributed robes to everyone.

These robes also had head coverings. Once Long Chen and the others wore them, they looked as though they were dressed like demons. They were frightened by their own appearance.

“Mo Nian, you aren’t really trying to make me piss myself in fear, are you?!” Guo Ran couldn’t help asking.

“What are you talking about? These robes have a special aura that can make evil corpses think that we are one of them. They won’t attack us,” said Mo Nian.

After they were dressed up, they slowly walked toward the giant cave. An evil wind occasionally blew out from the mouth of the cave, making all their hair stand on end.

Even Long Chen was holding onto the hilt of the Minghong Saber without being aware of it. His right hand was holding Yue Xiaoqian’s hand. They were all afraid of some danger.

They walked into the cave. It was pitch-black inside. Once they were thirty meters in, at the rear, Guo Ran suddenly cried out, causing everyone’s heart to clench.