My Years in the Folklore World

Chapter 639: Borrowing Life
Jiang Xinghuo closed the Mountain and River Dragon Vein Eye between his eyebrows and continued to look at the new message that popped up on his mobile phone.

"Now that you have merged with the Mountain and River Dragon Vein Eye, what are you going to do next? Will you continue to explore in the cave? Or will you choose to leave the cave and head to Beiping?"

The game gave two options, and Jiang Xinghuo originally wanted to continue on his journey.

Because he had already searched the cave and found nothing, it would be futile to delay any further.

However, just when Jiang Xinghuo was about to leave the cave, he suddenly remembered the lucky incense in his magic bag. With the dual effects of the Qilin's blessing and the lucky incense, perhaps some hidden plots could be triggered.

So, Jiang Xinghuo immediately opened the magic bag and found the Hongyunxiang, then clicked on it and chose to use it in the cave.

"You have used the Fortune Incense."

"The power of the Fortune Incense slowly enveloped you. Under the catalysis of the power of the Qilin Blessing, some abnormal and unknown changes occurred."

"Under the influence of this force, you explored the cave again, but unlike before, you found some words on the back of the clay statue that were invisible to the naked eye."

"If you hadn't triggered your talent of seeing through fire, which allows you to see all the subtle details, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to see those fonts."

"You learned what happened here through the words on the back of the clay statue."

"According to the description in those words, this old man's cave was indeed left by Lord Qingnang. Lord Qingnang fought with a powerful enemy and although he sealed the enemy under the nine springs, he also suffered extremely serious injuries. He could die at any time."

"In order to save his own life, Qing Nang Gong developed a new technique of 'borrowing life' based on the folk method of borrowing life."

"This art of borrowing lives is not much different from the method of borrowing lives that is popular among the people. Both methods use the life span of other living beings to replenish one's own lost life span."

"However, the art of borrowing lives that Master Qing Nang has researched is not to borrow the lives of worldly ghosts and gods, but to borrow the spirits of all things in nature created by the heaven and earth, the mountains and rivers, the winds of heaven and the veins of earth. Wherever the spiritual energy gathers is where Master Qing Nang borrows lives to generate life."

"The Mountain and River Dragon Vein Eye that you have integrated into your body is the magic weapon that Lord Qingnang refined under such circumstances."

"However, this life-borrowing derivative technique has great limitations in its use. First of all, we must find a place where the dragon energy of the earth veins gathers before we can perform it."

"Secondly, you need to integrate yourself into an object that contains spiritual energy. Only by using the spiritual object as a carrier can you borrow the power of heaven and earth to nourish your body."

"Moreover, anyone who uses this method to extend his life must choose a place with the same concentrated spiritual energy before he dies and bury himself there. He takes from heaven and earth and returns to heaven and earth."

"If you are lucky enough, those buried here will have a chance to live again."

"The reason why Lord Qingnang chose to perform the art of borrowing life here is because the predecessor of this old man's cave was a 'locust-driving temple'."

"The deity enshrined in the temple is the Green Seedling God, one of the Eight Immortals in the secular world. The statue has been worshipped and sacrificed for a long time, and it contains pure incense and spiritual energy. In addition, this place is where the dragon energy of the earth veins gathers."

"That's why Lord Qing Nang decided to perform the Borrowing Life Derivation Technique here. He eventually shed his decayed body and broke free from his shackles. No one in the world could find his trace anymore. He only left behind a Mountain and River Dragon Vein Eye and the specific method of the Borrowing Life Derivation Technique."

"You have obtained the Secret Book of the Method of Borrowing Life (Legend)."

"Do you want to use this item?"

After reading the description in the text, Jiang Xinghuo became very interested in Qingnang Gong's research results and chose to use this prop without hesitation.

According to the records in the text, this technique is no longer a unorthodox technique of borrowing life, but a real way of stealing the key to heaven and earth to change one's own destiny.

Rather than calling it "borrowing life to derive", it would be more appropriate to call it "stealing the secrets of heaven".

"You have used the secret book of the method of borrowing life to derive."

"Learning, please wait..."

"You have successfully mastered the art of borrowing life to generate derivatives."

While the text prompts flashed in the game, Jiang Xinghuo also received relevant memory information in reality.

All the tricks and precautions of the art of borrowing life appeared in his mind without reservation. Combined with the Mountain and River Dragon Vein Eye between his eyebrows, the two can be said to be a match made in heaven.

"What are your plans next?"

This time, Jiang Xinghuo chose to leave the cave and continue to control the character to rush towards Beiping.

"We are still on our way. Please wait..."

The game entered a semi-idle state again.

At dusk.

New game text has been sent to the game.

Jiang Xinghuo clicked on it and saw that he had arrived at the official road of Peking, and it was less than half an hour away from Peking City.

"You arrived at the official road outside of Peking, but found hundreds of bodies around a mass grave on the side of the road. Do you want to go over and take a closer look?"

"You walked to the mass grave beside the official road and found that the bodies looked fresh and showed no signs of decay. They should have died no more than three days ago. But what attracted you was that there were no wounds on the bodies, nor any signs of lost souls. Instead, their faces were filled with fear and terror."

"You triggered it, the Coroner's Knowledge Panorama."

"You can judge from the professional skills and experience of the coroner that these people must have died of severe shock, to the point of their hearts and courage shattering, and died tragically on the spot. In other words, they were frightened to death, without exception."

Ok?
Jiang Xinghuo raised his eyebrows and thought that it was normal for one or two people to be scared to death, but if hundreds of people were scared to death, then there would be a problem.

"Do you wish to examine these bodies more closely?"

Jiang Xinghuo chose yes without much thought.

He wanted to see what was going on that could have frightened hundreds of people to death. "You conducted a thorough investigation near the mass grave and searched the bodies of these corpses, and finally found something on them."

"You have obtained the Broken Armor Blade."

"Broken armor blades (waste materials), blades that fell off from old armor, the surface is already covered with rust, there is no value in reuse, but you found the same thing on all the corpses."

"In addition, you also found a body that looked very strange. It was lying next to a big tree in the mass grave. The fingertips of its hands were bloody and stained with a lot of dirt and dust. It seemed that it had dug something with its bare hands, which caused its hands to be worn into this state."

"You searched around again and found traces of digging under the big tree next to the body. There were also some scattered bloodstains. Although they were well hidden, if you looked carefully, it was not difficult to see that they were different from other places."

"Do you want to go over and see what's buried there?"

Jiang Xinghuo naturally would not miss this task that was delivered to his doorstep.

"You summoned the tomb-grabbing beast in the cave and started digging under the tree. Soon the tomb-grabbing beast broke through the soil above, revealing a red wooden box. This should be the place where the body was buried before death."

"Take out the wooden box, break the copper lock on it, and open it. There are a few inconspicuous things in the box."

"You have obtained a brass key (common item), a map of Lao Yanzhi Hutong (common item), and a broken guide incense stick (common item)."

"Brass key (common item), tiger-head lock key commonly used by dignitaries. The internal structure of each lock is different. Only a special key can open it. Imitation keys will not work. It was developed by the master locksmith of the Fuchunhua Bureau specifically for the seven-treasure key."

Tsk, it’s really powerful. Fortunately, I found the key. Otherwise, even with the Seven Treasures Key in hand, I wouldn’t be able to open the tiger-head lock.

"The map of Lao Yanzhi Hutong (common item). Lao Yanzhi Hutong in Beiping is one of the eight major hutongs. It used to be a place of romance, but later, for some reason, all the prostitutes in this hutong moved to another hutong, also called Yanzhi Hutong. Since then, there have been two Yanzhi Hutongs in Beiping."

"The location of a courtyard is marked on this map. You can follow the map to find that courtyard."

"Incomplete Guiding Incense (Ordinary Consumable Item). After lighting it, you can follow the direction of the smoke and find a path that is invisible to the naked eye."

There are three items in total. If nothing unexpected happens, they should all be map-exclusive props and can only be used in Yanzhi Hutong.

After Jiang Xinghuo put away these things, he left the mass grave and continued on his way. Half an hour later, he finally arrived at the location of Beiping City.

"You have arrived in Beiping City."

"Please choose where you want to go next:"

"Will you choose to go to the sewers immediately to look for the incarnation of the Lord of the Five Grains Reincarnation who lives in seclusion there? Or will you choose to look for the son of the blind old man and give the letter entrusted to you by the old man to the young old man?"

"Or, you can choose to go to Lao Yanzhi Hutong and look for the courtyard marked on the map."

The game gives three answers to choose from: sewer, little old man, and Lao Yanzhi Hutong.

Jiang Xinghuo thought about it carefully and decided to deliver the letter home first, and then go to Yanzhi Hutong to look for the Lord of the Five Grains Reincarnation. He put it to last.

"You chose to go find Xiao Yilao to deliver a letter home."

"You followed the address left in the family letter and came to the Wedding Workshop in the west of Beiping City. This is the largest wedding workshop in Beiping City. Everything you need for marriage and weddings can be found here."

"You came to the entrance of the Happy Event Hall and explained your purpose. You gave the dyeing boy outside the door 50 incense sticks. The dyeing boy excitedly put away the incense sticks and asked you to wait for a moment. He will go in and help you find someone."

"You waited outside for a while, and then the dyeing boy came out with the little old man. When you saw the little old man, you explained your identity."

"But when the little old man heard that you were entrusted by his father to deliver a letter, his face turned pale as paper, as if he had heard something impossible and terrible."

"You learned from the old man that its father died many years ago, and it had no one to rely on, so it came to work in the Xishifang in Beiping..."

Seeing this, Jiang Xinghuo was also stunned for a moment, thinking that it was quite interesting. A normal letter delivery mission turned out to be a supernatural event?
Since Xiao Yilao's father is dead, who entrusted him to deliver the letter?
Jiang Xinghuo shook his head and continued to push the plot forward.

"Take out the letter and the jade lion seal from your possession and give them both to the young old man."

"After the little old man saw these two things, the look of fear on his face became more intense. He pointed behind you and screamed."

"You looked back and saw a dark aura not far behind you. An old man in red funeral clothes appeared there at some point. It was the blind old man you met earlier."

"But at this moment, the blind old man had a strange smile on his face and walked towards you and the little old man step by step."

"The little old man is trying to escape in a panic. Do you want to protect him?"

Although Jiang Xinghuo didn't know what had happened, his intuition told him that he was being used by someone. This old man might be trying to do something immoral, so he definitely couldn't just sit back and watch.

"You grabbed the little old man's arm and protected him behind your back, then took out a few talismans to exorcise evil spirits and threw them at the blind old man."

"I never thought that the talisman would turn into ashes and dissipate instantly before it even touched the blind old man. It didn't have any blocking effect at all."

"You had no choice but to unfold the Eight Phases World. Countless lightnings surged out and turned into a thunder dragon circling and dancing. The blind old man also paused, as if he was very afraid of this. After a gust of cold wind blew, he disappeared without a trace."

"When the little old man saw that you had frightened that evil creature, he immediately knelt on the ground and begged you to save its life, otherwise that creature would come back to look for it again."

"Help the little old man up from the ground, find a tea stall on the street, and let him explain what happened. Then you can decide whether to help him."

"Since this matter concerns his life and property, the young old man did not dare to hide anything and told the whole story without reservation."

"The history of this matter can be traced back to his great-grandfather's generation. Originally, his family was also a descendant of officials, with a rich family background and a high status. However, after the night of dawn, the Lord of the Secular World fell in the Forbidden City, and they became the feudal dregs that everyone wanted to kill. In order to save their own lives, they had to give up all their wealth and fled from Peking in a hurry. Luckily, they survived."

"But because they were used to a life of luxury, they were lazy and didn't know how to distinguish grains. When they suddenly fell into poverty, they had no way to make a living and could only do some lowly jobs to barely make a living. It wasn't until the generation of their great-grandfather that things started to change..."

(End of this chapter)