Chapter 1630: A Bloody Place
âBrother Gu, where in the God Realm are you from?â Gou Monanâs carefully spread out his Yao sense to investigate the surrounding area, but he didnât forget to make small talk while his was at it.
After thinking it over, Ye Zichen decided to travel with him. Although he couldnât relax with this uninvited guest the way he could with Yang Jian, they were still safer traveling together.
âThe Northern Divine Mountain,â said Ye Zichen.
âIs there a Gu Clan on the Northern Divine Mountain?â Gou Monan seemed rather familiar with the Northern Divine Mountain.
When Ye Zichen heard that, he couldnât help but arch his brows. âBrother Gou, are you familiar with the Northern Divine Mountain?â
When he heard âBrother Gouâ, Gou Monanâs expression turned rather awkward.
âYouâd best just call me Monan. Brother GouâŠâ
âHahaha!â Ye Zichen burst into laughter; heâd only just noticed that âBrother Gouâ sounded awfully similar to the word âcoward.â
Once he was done laughing, he turned back to Gou Monan, whoâd yet to answer his question.
âYou could say Iâm familiar with the place, yes. One of my clanswomen married into the Northern Divine Mountainâs Di Clan. Her husband is the eldest son of the main lain, Di Jiao. Furthermore, I was once fortunate enough to visit the Northern Divine Mountain myself and spend some time there.â
âAh, thatâs how it is.â Ye Zichen nodded. He knew a little about the Di Family; Di Long was one of their clansmen. They werenât a small family clan, either.
âThe Gu Family is no major clan. We definitely canât compete with the Di Family,â laughed Ye Zichen.
âYouâre being modest, Brother Gu. Making it into the mausoleum alone proves that youâre no ordinary man. To raise up an elite like you, I doubt your Gu Family is the minor clan you make it seem. It ought to be one of the more reclusive family clans,â said Gou Monan, nodding as he made his analysis.
If he was willing to believe that, Ye Zichen felt no need to tell him otherwise. He simply smiled a faint, ambiguous smile.
Gou Monan could see that Ye Zichen didnât want to discuss his family background any further, so he didnât ask any more questions. They simply walked side by side into the castle, wandering aimlessly in search of god fortune.
The Divine Mausoleum was also called the Transcendent Mausoleum.
Itâs interior wasnât some tomblike palace of the dead; it seemed more like the splendid palace of an emperor.
The towering walls were entirely red, and they pierced straight into the clouds. The ground below was formed entirely of granite.
The palaceâs layout was extremely complicated, but it wasnât eerie or unsettling like that corridor had been. It had lots of corners, and around them, they saw quite a few courtyard entrances.
Theyâd once gone into one to look around, but it was completely empty. Never mind transcendent fortune; there wasnât even a single pill or artifact.
âBrother Monan, before we met, you ought to have already walked around a fair bit, yeah?â
âI wonât lie to you, Brother Gu. I walked for quite some time before encountering you. I even witnessed a bloody spectacle.â Gou Monan nodded.
Bloody?
Ye Zichen furrowed his brows. He didnât quite understand what Gou Monan was saying.
Wasnât he trying to say that he had indeed encountered others earlier, and more than one of them at that? If he called it a âbloody spectacleâ, at least one person had to have killed another, too.
âBrother Monan, might you explain?â
âBrother Gu, do you really want to hear?â Gou Monanâs eyes suddenly flashed with a hint of fear. He looked around, then lowered his voice and said, âIt wasnât long agoâŠâ
The incident in question was just as Ye Zichen thought: there were others here too.
Just after leaving the corridor, Gou Monan wound up here. Heâd only just arrived, so he was quite curious. Furthermore, heâd never seen such a lavish, splendid palace in the Northern Kingdom, so he went for a walk as if he were a tourist.
Just as he was admiring the towering, spending palace, the dense smell of blood assailed his nostrils.
People!
Anyone capable of entering the mausoleum wasnât some greenhorn leaving home for the first time. Even if Gou Monan were far more naive than he already was, heâd still know this smell meant people nearby, and that someone had gotten hurt.
Heâd planned to leave, but for some unearthly reason, he found himself walking towards the source of the smell. Inside a little courtyard, he saw a person with a full head of silver hair facing away from the doorway. He was covered in blood, and there was an already lifeless body lying in front of him.
âBrother Gou, itâs fortunate you run quickly. Otherwise, you might not have lived long enough to meet me.â
Gou Monan pounded his chest in lingering fear. He could see that the killer was the cruel, violent type; had he been discovered, he might have fallen there too. He would have wound up just like that corpse.
âYou were quite lucky,â said Ye Zichen. Gou Monan couldnât help but nod.
âLetâs go over and take a look,â said Ye Zichen suddenly.
When Gou Monan heard that, his eyes went as wide as cymbals, and his jaw opened so wide, you could practically stuff an egg in it. âBrother Gu, youâre insane!â
âWhy do you say that?â
âThat man kills without batting an eye. I could tell from his aura that Iâm no match for him, otherwise, I wouldnât have chosen to run away like that. If you go now, wonât you just be throwing your life away? Please, forgive me for my bluntness, but based on your aura, youâre weaker than me!â
âWhat is there to be afraid if?â Said Ye Zichen with a shrug. âThe killer and his victim most likely just got into a fight over treasures. Besides, you said it happened shortly after you entered this place, right? Do you think heâs still there after all this time? Iâm just curious and want to take a look. If youâre worried, you can tell me the location and I can go by myself.â
âHow could I be so cowardly? If youâre going, Iâm going with you!â
Ye Zichen followed Gou Monan down a winding path for over an hour. Fortunately, he had a guide; Ye Zichen feared that, with directions alone, he couldnât possibly have found the place.
They didnât just walk, either; they passed through several courtyards, too. The place in question turned out to be a hidden doorway within the final courtyard. It was completely covered in leaves. It would be hard to find unless you were the one who built it.
âThis is it,â said Gou Monan, pointing to the doorway hidden behind the leaves.
âIâm just glad I had you to guide me,â said Ye Zichen, at a bit of a loss for words.
Gou Monan scratched his head in good-natured embarrassment. Then, he pointed to his nose and laughed, âIâve always been rather sensitive to smells.â
âSensitive to smells?â Ye Zichen arched his brow.
âThatâs right. You ought to be able to tell from my surname; my true body is a kind of dog,â said Gou Monan.
Ye Zichen nodded. Canines did indeed have sensitive notices.
Little Whiteâs nose had been sharp, too.
When he thought about Little White, he couldnât help but miss him. Theyâd met at the Tenth Divine Mountain, but Little White went straight for the temporal divine artifact before they even got a chance to chat. Ye Zichen didnât even know his friendâs current cultivation.
âBrother Gu, shall we go in?â asked Gou Monan tentatively.
âWe came all this way. I naturally want to go in and take a look,â said Ye Zichen, heading straight for the entrance.
However, Gou Monan reached out and took hold of him. âBe careful! There might still be someone inside!â
âQuit it! Weâre talking right here in the doorway. If we were going to be discovered, it would have happened already.â Ye Zichen then passed through the leaves without another thought.
It was as if heâd entered another world. An arched door stood proudly before them, followed by a room less courtyard.
If this was really an imperial palace, those who lived here were either the emperorâs children or his concubines.
When he looked at the lay of the courtyard, it seemed relatively likely that the inhabitant was female. What did it mean for an imperial concubine to create a hidden passage like that? Could it be that she�
But now. Those who worked within the imperial harm were all eunuchs. She couldnât possibly have been⊠with themâŠ.
Perhaps she was with a palace guard?
After all, an emperor was just one man. With a harem of three thousand beauties, even if he wanted to love and cherish all of them, he couldnât possibly manage it. It was hard to prevent the overlooked concubines from doing this sort of thing.
Just thinking about it made him blush!
But Ye Zichen was already no longer in the mood to think about that; the smell of blood hit him right in the face. As soon as he entered the little courtyard, he saw the exact bloody scene Gou Monan had described.
To tell the truth, seeing it in person had a far stronger impact than hearing it secondhand.
Gou Monan described the courtyard as covered in blood. Thatâs because this wasnât a corpse so much as the pieces of one.
The body had been split into chunks. It seemed that this was the killerâs strange hobby; different body parts were sorted into different piles.
The head had been placed on the tea table visible upon entering the courtyard.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Gou Monan rushed in from behind. When he saw the headâs features, he let out a sudden shriek.
âDahai!â He dashed up to the tea table as if heâd gone mad, then looked into the headâs still-open eyes.
Gaze sharp, he let out an infuriated roar.
Based on the man he called Dahaiâs expression, he hadnât known how heâd died. From his expression, it was clear that his death had come as a complete surprise.
Gou Monan continuously called out his name, but Ye Zichen walked over. He gently brushed his hand across Dahaiâs face and shut his eyes.
âEnough. Heâs already dead. Crying out like that wonât do you any good.â
âDahai!â Gou Monan collapsed on the ground. Ye Zichen didnât ask him about their relationship, but Gou Monan started mumbling to himself, as if telling a story. âDahai and I have known each other since we were little. Heâs a few years older, so heâs always been like a big brother to me. When I was little, my body was weak, and I couldnât cultivate. It was Dahai who snuck books out of the clan for me to read.â
âAs time went on, we both became Yao Kings. Before we entered this place, he said that if we were lucky, we might be able to become Great Yao Kings. That was his greatest dream! You have no idea how excited he was when the mausoleum opened, butâŠâ
âItâs all my fault! If I hadnât run when I saw that murder, if Iâd fought him tooth and nail, this wouldnât have happened!â
âItâs all my fault! Itâs all my fault!â
Gou Monan slammed his fists into the dirty. Meanwhile, Ye Zichen circled the little courtyard and the little pavilion at its center.
There werenât any particularly obvious marks of battle. If theyâd really fought over treasures, there ought to have been more scuff marks. Ye Zichen had a hard time believing anyone could insta-kill a Yao King; at that level, an expertâs detection abilities were extremely high.
That only left one possibility⊠The one whoâd done the killing was familiar to his victims!
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