My Years in the Folklore World

Chapter 523 Imperial Tomb
"You have obtained the heirloom of the blind old man. What are you going to do next? Do you take the item and leave immediately to report back to the blind old man, or do you scare the young old man again to see if you can get more items?"

Oh, it’s not over yet. It seems that this little old man still has some secrets that I haven’t discovered yet. If that’s the case, I must not miss this opportunity.

Jiang Xinghuo chose to continue threatening the young old man.

"You used threats and intimidation to get the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training Secret Manual passed down from the old man."

"You have obtained the Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training Secret Book (Rare)."

"The Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training is a simple horizontal training kung fu. It is easy to get started. It does not depend on aptitude. As long as you are willing to endure hardships, you can quickly get started. And the upper limit is very high, enough to be comparable to the Martial Lord's Golden Bell Cover. However, those who practice this horizontal training kung fu will make their bodies extremely heavy. Therefore, in the era when the Lord of the Secular World ruled, this kung fu was mostly circulated among the soldiers."

"However, you always feel that the little old man is hiding something from you. It seems that the reason why he gave you this secret book is to hide something. What are you going to do next?"

"Are you planning to leave the little old man's house and then return secretly, or are you going to go back directly to find the blind old man?"

Looking at the two options in front of him, Jiang Xinghuo didn't think too much and directly chose the former.

"You left Little Yilao's house on the surface, walked to a deserted place, and then transformed yourself into a hidden place in the wind, returning to Little Yilao's study. You watched him take out a stack of yellowed thin paper from the secret compartment of the bookcase. There seemed to be many lines painted on it. Do you want to snatch it away?"

"You chose to take action and snatch it."

"Little Yi Lao didn't expect you to come back again. It was too late to hide the things. I could only watch you snatch the things from my hands, but I couldn't do anything about it."

"You have obtained the heirloom of the little old man."

An heirloom?

Is it another heirloom?
Jiang Xinghuo was a little speechless. These old men had quite a lot of good things on them. Every one of them had a family heirloom. But he was also very curious and wanted to see what these old men's heirlooms were.
Antiques? Paintings? Or instruments of worship?

Jiang Xinghuo first checked the ancestral items of the little old man.

"You have triggered the Tathagata's talent."

"You used your innate ability to analyze all things with the Tathagatagarbha, and quickly understood the details of the contents recorded on those papers."

"You have obtained the map of the Imperial Mausoleum."

"The Imperial Mausoleum is the resting place of the Dragon Kings after their death. Not only are there grave keepers guarding their rest, but there are also countless traps hidden in the dark."

"If any villain dares to break in without permission, the trap will be triggered immediately and he will die without a burial place."

"These drawings are the mechanical diagrams of the imperial mausoleum, recording the locations of the hubs of various mechanisms."

"Little Yilao's ancestors are the guardians of these drawings. They will never allow them to fall into the hands of outsiders. However, Little Yilao's ancestors only have the drawings of the mechanisms outside the mausoleum. The drawings of the mechanisms inside the mausoleum are in the hands of the grave keepers."

"Now that you have obtained the map of the imperial mausoleum, you can successfully pass through the outer defense line and proceed to the real mausoleum of the emperors of the royal family."

Jiang Xinghuo thought to himself that this was asking him to be like Sun Dianying. Even the blueprints were sent to him. It would be unreasonable if he didn't go.

Then, Jiang Xinghuo looked at the blind old man's heirloom.

"You opened the mahogany brocade box and found that the object inside was actually a small bronze tripod."

"You observed through the vision of Tathagatagarbha and discovered the secret of this small bronze tripod."

"You have obtained the Golden Body Cauldron."

“Golden Body Tripod (rare item), a self-defense treasure bestowed by the Lord of the World to a gravekeeper. It can make the gravekeeper invincible and weaken external attacks. Duration: 10 minutes.”

"Please note that after each use of the Golden Body Cauldron, there will be a two-hour cooldown period before it can be used again. If you forcefully activate the Golden Body Cauldron to protect your body, the cooldown period will double."

Jiang Xinghuo remembered the Cloud Piercing Awl. Under the tiankeng of the Yellow River Underground Palace, he met a bandit named Ye Feilong and obtained the Cloud Piercing Awl from him.

Like this Golden Body Tripod, they are treasures bestowed by the Lord of the Secular World to the gravekeeper, but they have different functions. The Golden Body Tripod focuses on defense, while the Cloud Piercing Cone focuses on attack.

So this blind old man is also a descendant of the gravekeeper?

While Jiang Xinghuo was thinking about these things, new game text suddenly popped up.

"Now that you have the Golden Body Tripod passed down from the blind old man's ancestors, and you also have the diagram of the mechanism of the imperial mausoleum, you can go to the imperial mausoleum to find out what's going on. Do you want to go to the imperial mausoleum immediately? Or do you want to take the Golden Body Tripod back to the blind old man?"

"You know, a magical instrument like the Golden Body Cauldron is hard to come by. It can protect you from the troubles of the mechanisms in the mausoleum, and it can also help you resist attacks from others. If you return the Golden Body Cauldron to the blind old man, it means you may lose this treasure forever, so what will you choose?"

It has to be said that this Golden Body Cauldron is very tempting to Jiang Xinghuo. Even though he has a lot of things on hand now, not many of them are actually used for defense, let alone ones of the quality and ability of the Golden Body Cauldron.

If I return the things, I would feel a little sad, but if I don’t return them, the subsequent plot probably won’t be able to unfold.

The part about the blind old man obviously has subsequent tasks and plots. If you give up just like that, you might miss something more important.

After much thought, reason finally overcame greed. Jiang Xinghuo did not choose to run away with the Golden Body Cauldron. He chose to give the thing back to the blind old man.

"You left the old man's house with all your belongings. What will you do next? If you regret it now, it's not too late. No one can catch you if you run away with your belongings. Otherwise, when you go back and hand the belongings to the blind old man, it will be too late. Even if you want to regret it, it will be too late."

Jiang Xinghuo glanced at the text content and ignored the copywriter's words of instigation. Instead, he controlled the game character on his own and returned to the blind old man's residence to hand over the golden tripod to him.

"I have to say, this is a very regrettable thing. You chose to return the Golden Body Cauldron to the blind old man. Although you received his praise, you missed a great opportunity. However, there is always a gain in a loss. Although you lost the Golden Body Cauldron, you may be able to get something more precious."

"The blind old man took the golden tripod from your hand, stood up and groped his way to the wall, saying that there were too many things piled up in the house and there was no place for you to step, so he asked you to wait outside for a while and go in after everything was cleaned up."

"The blind old man walked into the yard. The door was half-open and I couldn't see clearly what was going on inside. What are you going to do now?" "Will you leave the door immediately, or will you wait outside the door for a while as the blind old man said?"

Jiang Xinghuo thought about it and decided to wait at the door. He wanted to see what this blind old man was planning.

But I never expected that after waiting for more than half an hour, the game seemed to have entered an idle state and never triggered any subsequent interactions.

Just when Jiang Xinghuo was considering whether to think of other solutions, there was suddenly a follow-up interaction in the game.

"You've been waiting outside the door for too long, but there's been no sound from the yard, as if no one is there anymore. Do you want to break in and take a closer look?"

Jiang Xinghuo didn't think too much about it and chose yes very straightforwardly. As for whether there was danger behind the door or any other traps, Jiang Xinghuo didn't care about those at all.

He actually hoped that the blind old man would attack him, so that he could kill him and snatch the Golden Body Tripod from him.

"You pushed the door open and walked into the yard. The huge yard seemed unusually empty. Apart from a dilapidated house, there was only a dry well. Do you want to go and take a look?"

"You walked to the front of the dry well and looked down. You saw that the well was full of corpses. They were all exiles from the same race as you. There were no monsters from other races."

Seeing this, Jiang Xinghuo's heart moved slightly, as if he thought of something, and then he controlled the character to walk into the dilapidated house.

"You walked into the shabby house. There was no one inside. The blind old man had disappeared. There was only an oil lamp on the table. Next to it was the golden tripod. Under the tripod was a letter. Do you want to pick it up?"

"You walked to the table, picked up the golden tripod, and then picked up the letter and took a look at it."

"You have obtained the Golden Body Cauldron."

"You have obtained the letter from the gravekeeper."

"You were overjoyed to have the Golden Cauldron recovered, but what attracted you even more was the letter."

"You opened the envelope and read its contents, and learned the identity of the blind old man and the whole story."

"According to the records in the letter, the blind old man was one of the twelve tomb keepers of the imperial mausoleum. After the night of dawn, the imperial mausoleum was coveted by many evil spirits. In order to protect the imperial mausoleum, these tomb keepers fought with the invaders. Some died, and many were injured. After many years, only he survived by chance, but he was like a candle in the wind and could die at any time."

"And the reason why it hid its identity in Beiping City and deliberately tormented you was to test your character and personality."

"The bodies of the exiles in the dry well outside were blinded by greedy desires, so it had no choice but to dispose of them and throw them into the dry well. Although the exiles have the characteristics of immortality, the people killed by them cannot be resurrected within three months. They can only wake up from their slumber after three months."

Seeing this, Jiang Xinghuo secretly felt lucky that he did not get greedy and ran away with the Golden Body Cauldron. Otherwise, he would probably become one of the people in the dry well.

"You have passed its test, so this Golden Body Cauldron is given to you. This Golden Body Cauldron is not only a treasure for self-defense, but also the key to enter the ancient tomb it guards."

"After you enter the imperial mausoleum, you will see a fork in the road that leads to different mausoleums. From left to right, the seventh mausoleum is the one it guarded back then. The map inside is also engraved on the golden tripod. As long as you can enter that mausoleum, you can trigger the corresponding map and obtain the treasure hidden inside."

Jiang Xinghuo frowned slightly, feeling that this matter was odd. Since this blind old man was the gravekeeper, why did he leave the Golden Body Tripod behind?

Wouldn't that be equivalent to giving the mausoleum to myself for free?
Or,
Does that blind old man have other plans?
Jiang Xinghuo thought about it carefully for a while but couldn't come up with any useful clues, but no matter what, the golden tripod fell into his hands.

Thinking in his mind, Jiang Xinghuo took the thing out of the magic bag.

It was a bronze tripod only one inch in size and looked like a small pendant, with its surface covered with rust and strange patterns.

Then, Jiang Xinghuo threw the small tripod into the air and injected a trace of magic power into it. The tripod body then glowed and became more than a foot high, emitting a layer of flowing light that enveloped Jiang Xinghuo's figure.

Ten minutes later, the light disappeared, and the bronze tripod returned to its original shape and fell into Jiang Xinghuo's palm.

"So that's how it's used..."

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the bronze tripod in his palm. This time he was able to attack and defend at the same time. Then he flipped his palm, and the bronze tripod disappeared from his palm and entered the magic bag.

"Where are you going next?"

When Jiang Xinghuo obtained the Golden Body Cauldron, new text options appeared in the game.

But this time, the game only gave two options, one was the Ministry of Justice in Beiping, and the other was the imperial tomb ruins outside the city.

Jiang Xinghuo took a look and finally chose the Ministry of Justice. He still had a mission to complete here, which was to help the Xianyuexian get rid of the crazy fire.

This was the task he received from the ominous group at that time. There was no time limit and no mandatory requirement to complete it. Even the reward was given in advance.

Now, he could go over and give it a try to see if the fragments of the golden law on his body could help the Weapon-Crossing Immortal to free himself from the madness.

If possible, perhaps more tasks can be triggered and more valuable rewards can be obtained.

Let’s take a step back.

Even if he could not help the Immortal of Prey to escape from the madness, he would not suffer any loss. The worst result would be that he would lose his life.

"You chose to go to the Ministry of Justice."

"On the way, please wait..."

"You arrived at the gate of the Ministry of Justice, but as soon as you walked outside the gate and before you pushed the door open, you felt a terrifying aura spreading out from behind the door."

(End of this chapter)