Chapter 196
Chapter 196
There was only one reason a stretch of Dragon Ridge had formed in the mountain hollow: a Golden Scale belonging to Liu Junyan had fallen there.
Through some unknown stroke of fortune, the Black Toad had found the Golden Scale and settled here to cultivate in silence.
If it had continued cultivating this way, absorbing the essence of the Golden Scale, the sun and moon, and this auspicious feng shui site, it might truly have cultivated itself into a Three-Eyed Golden Toad one day.
Unfortunately, the Qiu Family had ruined it all.
The Black Toad had been forced to abandon the orthodox path of cultivation and take the shortcut of Blood Sacrifice instead.
It had always carried the Golden Scale atop its head, and the Golden Scale had effectively become its protective talisman. Any ordinary person who wanted to deal with it would first have to destroy this entire feng shui site.
But Liu Junyan was different.
Liu Junyan was the owner of the Golden Scale. If he could wrest the Golden Scale back from Niuhu Mountain, why would he fear a Toad Spirit that had yet to complete its cultivation?
“I can take care of this for you,” Liu Junyan said. “But Boss Qiu, once this is over, the Qiu Family’s fortunes may no longer be as prosperous as before. They won’t be too bad, either.”
Qiu Fengnian nodded repeatedly. “I don’t mind giving up my position as Chang City’s Richest Man. Even a dead camel is still bigger than a horse. With my business acumen, I’m confident I won’t fall too far. Master, what… what I care about most is still my family…”
I picked up where he left off. “Once this is over, I’ll invite an experienced master to perform a ritual at your home and help secure the peace and stability of your household. Judging by your Facial Features, the Qiu Family should have been destined to have many descendants.”
That was precisely what Qiu Fengnian had been waiting to hear. How could he possibly object?
But just as we were about to lay down a formation and make our move, bursts of croaking suddenly rose from the mountain hollow, beneath the grave pit. The cries rose and fell one after another, as if thousands upon thousands of frogs — or an entire army of creatures like the Toad-were croaking at once.
The sound was incredibly piercing, boring straight into our eardrums.
Qiu Fengnian was the first to succumb. Almost instantly, he clapped both hands over his ears as thin trickles of blood seeped from his nose and ears.
The bodyguards stationed around the perimeter were next.
Liu Junyan’s expression changed. “This is bad. This Toad actually has a master. And the Toad is female.”
As he spoke, he grabbed Qiu Fengnian and me and dragged us backward.
Wiping the blood from his nose, Qiu Fengnian asked nervously, “M-Master, this… this…”
Before he could finish, the ground beneath our feet began to tremble.
The tremor was extremely faint. Rather than spreading over a wide area, it traveled along a single straight line.
“It’s the Dragon Ridge,” I said. “It’s moving.”
“It’s siphoning the vital essence from the Dragon Ridge!” Liu Junyan said.
As he spoke, he looked around. After sweeping his gaze across the surroundings, his eyes suddenly locked onto a point behind a mountain peak to the southeast.
His hand flicked, and a gold-colored Copper Coin shot in that direction.
“Xiao Jiu, keep your eye on the Dragon Ridge! If Corpse Transformation occurs, burn it!”
Leaving those words behind, Liu Junyan sprang away in pursuit toward the southeast.
Everything had happened too quickly. From Qiu Fengnian’s description, the Black Toad had merely been an ownerless black lump.
We had never considered the possibility that it might have a master, mainly because the Qiu Family had worshipped it for a full ten years.
If it had a master, wouldn’t that master have done something by now?
Would anyone really suffer a grievous injury, then lie low without making a single move for an entire decade?
Unless… they still wanted something from the Qiu Family.
I narrowed my eyes as a thought suddenly flashed through my mind. I immediately asked, “Boss Qiu, tell me your father’s Birth Date and Time.”
Qiu Fengnian’s lips were trembling.
As a seasoned veteran of the business world, he should have been the type to remain calm in a crisis. Unfortunately, the Toad Spirit had siphoned away too much of his vital essence. He was completely drained!
Qiu Fengnian haltingly recited his father’s Birth Date and Time. I calculated it and found nothing unusual.
That didn’t match what I’d expected.
I asked him for the date of his father’s burial as well, but it was just as ordinary.
No. Something was still wrong!
Before Liu Junyan left, he’d warned me about the possibility of Corpse Transformation… That aligned perfectly with my own suspicions.
But I’d assumed Qiu Fengnian’s father’s Birth Date and Time was extremely yin and had been exploited for Corpse-Nurturing. Failing that, the burial date should at least have been extremely yin.
Yet neither was true.
So where did the problem lie?
What if Qiu Fengnian’s father was only a front?
What if someone — or something-else was buried beneath this Dragon Ridge?
Qiu Fengnian’s father was a smokescreen.
And wasn’t the Toad Spirit one as well?
Qiu Fengnian asked anxiously, “Shopkeeper Xiao Jiu, wh-what’s wrong?”
“Grave Beneath a Grave,” I said, voicing my theory. “Boss Qiu, did the master who performed the Feng Shui Site Selection for your family back then have a grudge against the Qiu Family?”
“What?”
Qiu Fengnian’s face changed dramatically. “That can’t be! Haven’t I become Chang City’s Richest Man?”
“Yes.” Then I changed tack. “But the Qiu Family’s good fortune over the past few years was bought with the accumulated karmic merit of generations of your family!”
That was the most reasonable explanation.
A Golden Scale was never meant to languish in a pond.
With a Golden Scale hidden in this mountain hollow, it was bound to be discovered sooner or later.
To preserve the Golden Scale for the long term, to protect the Dragon Ridge formed because of it, and perhaps even to keep expanding outward along this Dragon Ridge one day… all of that required a vessel capable of sustaining it.
Across Huaguo’s vast territory of nearly ten million square kilometers, every region possessed only a finite share of fortune.
The Qiu Family held the lion’s share of Chang City’s fortune.
That was the fundamental reason the Qiu Family had been targeted!
As long as the Qiu Family’s ancestral grave remained here, they would spare no effort to protect this entire area.
Meanwhile, the Qiu Family’s fortune and karmic merit could conceal whatever was being nurtured beneath this prized feng shui site.
In the southeastern corner, Liu Junyan was battling a dark figure.
In the darkness, I couldn’t make out what the thing was.
Just then, a thunderous bang erupted from the mountain hollow.
A crack split the ridge down the middle, and a coffin lid hurtled out from within before slamming heavily into the ground.
The next moment, a person flew out and landed firmly on the ground.
After leaping from the coffin, the figure tilted his head back and opened his mouth toward the moon as if absorbing and refining its essence.
His hair was gray, and his body was gaunt. He wore a black burial robe, with both arms stretched rigidly out in front of him.
Under the moonlight, I could even see his long, black fingernails.
Black hair seemed to be growing from the nails as well.
His corpse had been preserved perfectly, without the slightest trace of decay. Long fangs pressed against his lips, gleaming with a chilling white light in the darkness.
The moment Qiu Fengnian saw him, he cried out in anguish, “Dad! Y-you still haven’t rotted?!”
Uh…
At Qiu Fengnian’s shout, the creature abruptly swiveled toward us and let out several eerie cackles. Then it sprang high into the air and came hopping straight at us.
The old corpse was clearly no pushover. Each hop carried it more than two meters, and after only a few leaps, it was already right in front of us.
Qiu Fengnian was scared witless. His whole body shook like a sieve as he kept mumbling, “Dad… Dad…”
I lashed out with a kick, sending Qiu Fengnian tumbling down the slope.
His bodyguards and eldest son were waiting below. He wouldn’t die.
At the same time, I summoned Fengwu and leveled the Longbow steadily at the zombie…