My Years in the Folklore World

Chapter 792 Cemetery
Jiang Xinghuo looked around the corpse in front of him carefully. Although the Taoist robe was worn and dirty, it was not made of ordinary cloth. If it was made of ordinary cloth, it would have been rotten by now.

But he tried to pick up a corner and pinched it with his fingertips. The fabric of the Taoist robe did not show any sign of resistance. Instead, it exerted a gentle force that completely removed the strength from his fingertips.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the face of the corpse again. He was tall and strong, with big ears and round eyes, and a beard like a halberd. He was similar to what was recorded in historical documents. To be honest, he did not look like a Taoist priest, but more like a warrior, at least two meters tall when standing up.

Afterwards, Jiang Xinghuo checked the secret room where the remains of the body were placed, trying to see if there were any hidden secrets or mysteries, but in the end he found nothing.

This should be the tomb chamber that Zhang Sanfeng arranged for himself. The Taoist and Martial Arts Diagram of Fire Dragon Immortal outside is the inheritance left by Zhang Sanfeng.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xinghuo took out the map of Zhenwu Cave Heaven from his arms. It was this map that brought him into this tomb, so if he wanted to leave, he would probably have to rely on this map.

Jiang Xing unfolded the map and injected his magic power into it. With a flash of light, the map in his hand immediately turned into a nimble crane, only the size of a palm, dancing around Zhang Sanfeng's body.

"What do you mean?"

"Could it be that the opportunity to leave here lies in Zhang Sanfeng's body?"

Jiang Xinghuo raised his eyebrows and guessed secretly in his heart, but there was nothing unusual about the corpse.

If it were in the secular world, Jiang Xinghuo would definitely use his limb-splicing Dharma image to devour and fuse Zhang Sanfeng's body in order to increase the power of his Dharma image. However, facing this famous Taoist grandmaster, he had to show some respect to him and not let him die without even an intact body.

Thought for a moment.

Jiang Xinghuo suddenly discovered that the crane evolved from the map, although it seemed to be circling around Zhang Sanfeng's body, actually seemed to be circling around the stone platform under Zhang Sanfeng's body.

"Could it be..."

Jiang Xinghuo's heart moved, he walked to the corpse, bowed respectfully, and whispered: "Senior, I am sorry for the offense, I hope you will forgive me if you are still alive."

After saying this, Jiang Xinghuo unfolded his limbs and spliced ​​his body together. The black cloud transformed into two giant hands that spun out and moved Zhang Sanfeng's body off the stone platform and placed it on an open space nearby.

Then he released a palm thunder, and the silver-white lightning gathered between his palms, shattering the stone platform not far in front of him.

When the smoke and dust from the shattered stone platform dissipated, a blue vortex appeared on the ground. Like the vortex behind the Zhenwu statue in the Golden Temple, they were entrances to other places.

"As expected..."

After seeing the vortex, Jiang Xinghuo's heart moved slightly. He waved his hand to collect the crane that the map had transformed into. Then he took out a peach wood puppet, and used the ability of the mountain rat among the Five Righteous Men of Jiangnan to condense the rubble around it into a platform as hard as iron. He then placed Zhang Sanfeng's body and remains on it, and finally left an instruction to the peach wood puppet.

In this way, after he leaves through the entrance to the secret realm, the peach wood puppet will be able to put Zhang Sanfeng's body and the stone platform back to their original positions and seal the entrance to the secret realm, thus ensuring the secrecy and safety of the place.

And just in case, Jiang Xinghuo also left a Lost Shrine in an inconspicuous corner. If he needs to come in again in the future, he can be teleported directly in through the Lost Shrine.

If the peach wood puppet is preserved intact, it can be controlled remotely through mechanical techniques, and then one can come here without activating the shrine.

After making all the preparations, Jiang Xinghuo leaped into the dark blue vortex.

The dizzying feeling of weightlessness came over him again. Jiang Xinghuo closed his eyes to minimize this strange discomfort. When his feet touched the ground again, the feeling of weightlessness disappeared, and then he opened his eyes.

He had come to another secret realm in Zhenwu Cave Heaven. It seemed to be a space of its own, as if he had left the scope of Zhenwu Cave Heaven. The sky was gray and the air was filled with the smell of burning incense, candles and paper money. Everywhere he looked were dry and withered graves.

There is a tombstone in front of each grave. The material is mottled and old, and it seems that it has existed for a long time. Some of the tombstones even have portraits engraved on them.

When Jiang Xinghuo saw the cemetery, he was suddenly startled and thought of the two photos Zhou Hui had sent him. The two tombstones with his name engraved on them were made of almost the same material as the tombstones he saw in the cemeteries before him.

Could it be that my future self is buried in this strange cemetery?

Jiang Xinghuo raised his eyes and looked into the distance. There was a pitch-black forest in the far distance, which was very similar to the background of the photo and what he saw in the heirloom lamp.

Jiang Xinghuo is now almost certain that the two stone tablets with his name engraved on them are located in this strange cemetery.

Thinking of this, Jiang Xinghuo no longer had any hesitation and walked straight towards the woods.

As he walked forward, he was also paying attention to the graves on both sides of the narrow path. Just when he reached the end of the edge of the cemetery, he suddenly stopped and fixed his eyes on the tombstones in front of the two graves.

Judging from the traces of the soil layer on the grave mounds, these two graves should have been built not long ago. However, what is most attractive is not the traces of the two graves, but the names on the tombstones in front of the two graves, which make Jiang Xinghuo feel very familiar.

If he remembered correctly, the names on the two tombstones should be the two staff members of the Public Opinion Survey Bureau.

He had had some dealings with these two people in the past and they were close acquaintances. Could it be that these two people were buried under the grave?

Jiang Xinghuo subconsciously activated his talent of Fiery Eyes and Golden Pupils. Two big suns flashed in his pupils, trying to spy on the situation beneath the two tombs.

However, the two graves seemed to contain a power that could block prying eyes. The eagle-eyed people could only see two vague corpses, covered by a layer of black and gray mist.

"Can't see through?"

Jiang Xinghuo frowned slightly. The power in the tomb could block vision. So if he wanted to see the scene inside the tomb, he had only one choice: dig the grave and dig the coffin.

"rise!"

Jiang Xinghuo waved his right hand and activated the power of the dragon-raising technique.

The ground was like two giant dragons rolling, and the soil was being renewed layer by layer, soon revealing the two bodies underneath. There were no coffins, only two tattered straw mats casually wrapping the bodies. However, judging from the two pairs of military boots that were exposed, they should be the staff of the Public Opinion Survey Bureau.

Jiang Xinghuo controlled the soil to lift up the two bodies. They were indeed the two players from the Poll Bureau that he was familiar with.

But at this moment they were lying there unconscious, with the orifices on their faces sealed with jade. They looked dead, but in fact they still had a glimmer of hope.

But the heartbeat became extremely weak and slow, only beating once every five minutes.

"It only beats once every five minutes?" Jiang Xinghuo frowned slightly. The heart beats once every five minutes, which is only twelve times an hour, and less than three hundred times a day. A normal person would have died long ago if his heart beat at this rate. Yet these two people still maintain a weak vitality. Could there be some mystery here?
When Jiang Xinghuo was feeling confused, the door god totem in his hand suddenly emitted light and transmitted a piece of information into Jiang Xinghuo's mind.

"The art of faking death?"

Jiang Xinghuo digested and absorbed the memory passed down by the door god, and found that it was actually relevant information about the art of feigning death.

This magic can make a person fall into suspended animation. After it is performed, the heartbeat will rapidly slow down and weaken, with a maximum of about 300 beats a day, or about 100,000 beats a year, which is about the daily heartbeat of a normal person.

In other words, for someone who has performed the art of faking death, the effect of time on him will be minimized. Living for one year is equivalent to living for one day for others. A hundred years for someone who has practiced the art of faking death is equivalent to just over three months, which can greatly extend his lifespan.

However, this magic also has a significant disadvantage, that is, during the period of maintenance of the spell, one cannot move and can only fall into a deep sleep like a living dead.

Jiang Xinghuo finally understood. No wonder the heartbeats of the two people from the Poll Bureau were so slow. It turned out that someone had faked their death.

But what is the other party's purpose in doing this?

Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a while but couldn't figure out anything. However, these two living people couldn't be buried in the ground anymore. He threw them into the world in the painting of Tianbingtu first, and would deal with it after leaving here.

In order to avoid other people experiencing the same fate, Jiang Xinghuo walked around the cemetery again.

Whenever he saw a newly piled grave, he would go over and dig it up to see who was lying inside. As a result, he actually dug up more than a dozen people, all of whom were affected by the art of suspended animation and fell into a state of sleeping living dead.

Following the principle of driving away one sheep and letting two sheep go, Jiang Xinghuo threw all the people he found into the world in the painting and had them guarded by the heavenly soldiers and generals to prevent any other accidents from happening.

Then, Jiang Xinghuo continued to walk towards the woods ahead.

Wangshan is a dead horse.

The forest seemed not too far away, but walking on it was another matter. Jiang Xinghuo once thought that there was some magic that could stretch the space, increasing the distance between himself and the forest. However, after performing the magic of movement, he found that there was no magic that could stretch the space. It was simply that the cemetery was too big.

Jiang Xinghuo used his magical powers to arrive outside the woods. Unlike the numerous tombs outside, there were only seven tombs in this woods, lined up in a row, located right in the middle of the woods in front.

Jiang Xinghuo took a deep breath and walked slowly forward. There was a small loess path under his feet, leading directly to the seven tombs in front.

However, except for the two in the middle that have tombstones, the other tombs are empty. There is nothing in front of them except a tattered incense burner.

Jiang Xinghuo walked over to the two tombstones and took a look. The tombstone on the left was covered with knife marks, as if someone had forcibly scratched the words on it. On the tombstone on the right, there was a line of large characters clearly engraved:
This is the tomb of the late father Jiang Gong, the old man Xinghuo.

Born on May 17th, Yi Hai year, died on April 19th, Geng Chen year.

Jiang Xinghuo said nothing, exited WeChat, opened the calendar on his phone, and flipped forward.

The year of Yi Hai, 1995.

May seventeenth.

It is still Jiang Xinghuo’s date of birth, no big problem.

He flipped back the perpetual calendar and saw the year of Gengchen, 2060.

Jiang Xinghuo found the message Zhou Hui had sent him some time ago. The content of the inscription and his date of birth had not changed, but the year of death was different from before.

The first time will be in the Gengwu year of 2050.

The second time will be in 2046, the year of Bingyin.

Now that I have seen the tombstone with my own eyes, the time engraved on it has changed again.

The year of Gengchen, 2060.

Has my death been delayed?

Jiang Xinghuo didn't know whether he should be happy or depressed. He had made so many efforts, but he didn't expect that he still couldn't completely reverse his fate of being killed. Instead, his death was delayed by ten years.

Looking at the withered grave in front of him, Jiang Xinghuo suddenly felt a surge of anger in his heart. He waved his right hand, and lightning gathered in his palm, directly flattening his own grave.

Digging other people's graves is immoral, digging your own grave is boring. Even if you dig a hundred and eight holes, no one can say anything.

He wanted to see what was buried in his grave. Was it his body? Or an empty coffin?

Jiang Xinghuo walked to the edge of the pit and saw an iron coffin placed underneath, sealed with chains and talismans, as if afraid that the things inside would escape.

"Are you worried that I'll turn into a zombie?"

Jiang Xinghuo ignored all that and took out the Xuanyuan bronze sword from the void drawer. He activated his sword skills, stood next to the tombstone, and struck the coffin with a sword through the air.

The sword light instantly tore through the layers of talismans and chains on the surface of the coffin. Even the iron coffin underneath could not escape the fate of being torn apart and was directly destroyed into pieces by this sword.

But unexpectedly, there was nothing in the coffin, not even a piece of tattered clothing, let alone a corpse.

Jiang Xinghuo carried the Xuanyuan Sword on his shoulder, with a thoughtful look on his face. Was it because he came here that the future changed?

Or is it because I am standing here at this moment that his body is not in the coffin?
Jiang Xinghuo thought for a moment. Just as he was confusedly wondering what to do next, a ray of illusory light suddenly floated out of the grave and flew in front of Jiang Xinghuo like a bubble, with fast images flashing inside.

Jiang Xinghuo suddenly grabbed the bubble in his hand. The bubble instantly dissipated into nothingness, but the image information contained in it appeared in his mind like a kaleidoscope.

(End of this chapter)