A master of comedy!

Chapter 134 Liu Bowen Severing the Dragon Vein
“I often play the zither in the general’s mansion, but in reality, I use the music to control insects and ants to dig secret passages for me until I get close to this dungeon…”

"Unfortunately, I'm always blocked by this Dragon-Slaying Stone. I've studied it for a long time, but I haven't found any flaws."

Jinse stroked the cold, hard stone wall, then looked back at Zhou Sheng with anticipation in her eyes.

"Boss Long, only the Great General knows the method to open the Dragon-Slaying Stone. Are you sure you're okay with this?"

She could tell Zhou Sheng was very confident, but she couldn't figure out how he would do it.

There is no secret in this world that is absolutely airtight.

Zhou Sheng smiled faintly, having already completed the divination using the Luoshu. He strolled forward and gently tapped on the stone wall.

Three short, one long, four short, two long.

After the knocking was finished, a gap suddenly appeared on the originally smooth broken stone wall, like a keyhole, but it was a full nine inches wide.

"So knocking on the door was a mechanism, this hole..."

Jinse's eyes lit up, and she said, "It looks like that Dragon-Swallowing Blade!"

His gaze immediately darkened again.

"The general always carries his sword with him, and that demonic sword is quite terrifying. It would be too difficult to steal it."

"Who said they were going to steal the knife?"

Zhou Sheng smiled slightly, then raised his palm, the image of the Dragon-Swallowing Blade flashing through his mind.

The next moment, the Qi of Geng Metal surged out, automatically transforming into a nine-ringed Dividing Sea Blade based on the memories in his mind. The blade was about ten feet long and covered with red veins.

This is another wonderful use of Yazi's supernatural powers; with a thought, he can transform into countless forms and wield all eighteen kinds of weapons at will.

Although the current Yazi is relatively weak and may be inferior to the real Dragon-Swallowing Blade in power, it is at least identical in appearance and has no flaws.

Zhou Sheng inserted the blade into the hole, and it fit perfectly.

He twisted his wrist holding the hilt of the knife, and immediately heard a muffled cracking sound, followed by the thick, broken stone wall slowly rising up.

It stopped halfway up, revealing a very spacious tunnel.

The surroundings were not dark, because the tunnel walls were inlaid with dazzling luminous pearls that emitted a faint glow.

The two exchanged a glance, and then Jinse went inside first.

"I'll go first."

Zhou Sheng didn't want a woman to lead the way, so he offered his suggestion.

Jinse shook her head and handed the guqin in her arms to Zhou Sheng, instructing him, "This is my true form. As long as it is still here, even if I die, I can still gather my essence. Protecting it is protecting me."

After saying that, she walked ahead, her slender body exuding an unspeakable determination.

Zhou Sheng knew she was trying to protect him and scout the way for him, and his heart warmed slightly. He followed her and gently touched the burnt tail mark on the guqin.

It wasn't cold to the touch; instead, it had a strange warmth and smoothness.

Back then, Li Cuiwei rescued the guqin from the fire and extinguished the flames with her hand, leaving this mark. In fact, with Jinse's current cultivation level, she could completely repair and perfect it, but she left it behind.

Although she possessed a refined and intelligent guqin (a seven-stringed zither), she was also a woman of deep affection and loyalty.

Suddenly, Jinse's delicate body trembled, she stopped in her tracks, turned around and glared at him, a hint of shyness and reproach flashing in her glassy eyes.

Why are you touching my waist?

"I touch—"

Zhou Sheng was taken aback, and then realized that the other party could actually sense his touch on the scorched tail mark.

"Ahem, sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"I could tell you didn't mean it, but anyway... don't touch me like that, especially my waist, it gets itchy there easily."

Her ethereal voice was devoid of any impure desires, which made Zhou Sheng feel somewhat embarrassed.

"Understood, understood." For a moment, Zhou Sheng felt as if the guqin in his arms was a hot potato, making him somewhat uneasy.

It took me a while to realize, no, why was he shy in front of a piano?
I inexplicably felt that it was a bit perverted.

Zhou Sheng shook his head and walked forward obediently. Before long, his gaze was drawn to the mural that suddenly appeared on the stone wall.

"These paintings... seem to be related to that tiger god?"

Zhou Sheng's eyes flashed, and he stared intently at the object, gradually revealing a look of shock, as if he had discovered some incredible secret.

Jinse also noticed the paintings and showed a similar look of surprise.

"This painting seems to depict... the story of Liu Bowen, the Imperial Tutor, severing the dragon vein. Miss told me about it before."

Zhou Sheng nodded and said, "It is indeed the legend of Liu Bowen severing the dragon vein, but it is different from what we know."

In the original Chinese history, there is also a legend of Liu Bowen severing the dragon vein.

Legend has it that after Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he was worried that his descendants would one day overthrow the Zhu family's rule. So he ordered Liu Bowen, who was skilled in feng shui, to cut off the remaining dragon veins in order to ensure that the Ming Dynasty would last for thousands of generations.

Liu Bowen did not disappoint. He traveled all over the world, carving mountains and quarrying rocks, diverting waterways, and setting up formations to suppress evil spirits, severing a total of ninety-nine dragon veins.

If that last one is severed, the dragon veins of the world can be cut off, ensuring that no true emperor will ever emerge from the Zhu family again.

And that last dragon vein is Changbai Mountain.

When Liu Bowen arrived at Changbai Mountain, it was late autumn, and the mountain was shrouded in mist and the air was bitterly cold.

He climbed to the top of the mountain and saw that the mountain range was winding like a dragon, with the main peak, Tianchi, resembling the dragon's eye, surrounded by other peaks, creating a magnificent sight.

What shocked him even more was that the dragon energy here was far more powerful than elsewhere, and the compass needle was even shaken off.

In the end, Liu Bowen made a choice: he gave up severing the last dragon vein and chose to leave.

Some say he lacked spiritual power, others say he foresaw that the retribution for slaying the dragon would fall upon his descendants, and still others say he saw that it was the will of Heaven, and that the will of Heaven cannot be defied.

More than two hundred years later, the Manchus entered the Central Plains, and their ancestral home was Changbai Mountain, which corresponds to this legend.

Whether in China or the rest of the world, the legend of Liu Bowen slaying the dragon is largely the same. The only difference is that there is no Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. Instead, it was Da Xuan Taizu Li Qingxuan who ordered him to slay the dragon.

However, the paintings on the stone wall at this moment seem to tell a different story.

The Imperial Tutor Liu Bowen, with his extraordinary talent, severed ninety-nine dragon veins, but with each one he severed, his hair turned whiter.

When he arrived at Changbai Mountain and found the last dragon vein, while his men cheered with joy, he stood alone on the mountaintop for a long time, sighing deeply.

He discovered a somewhat absurd yet bloody truth.

He was tricked, and the person who tricked him was named Tian.

Liu Bowen, confident in his extraordinary talent, wanted to achieve a feat that would break the cycle of dynastic changes and free the people from the suffering of war.

For this, he did not hesitate to suffer the backlash, severing one dragon vein after another, and his lifespan was almost over.

But when he arrived at Changbai Mountain, he discovered that the dragon veins he had severed earlier had not disappeared, but instead flowed into this last dragon vein like rivers flowing into the sea.

He slew the dragon, but in the end, he created a true dragon.

He gazed at the terrifying dragon vein hidden between the white mountains and black waters, and through the Heavenly Pool, he seemed to see those dragon eyes full of mockery and ridicule.

Even his act of slaying the dragon caused the ninety-nine dragon veins that had gathered to become filled with malevolent energy, making the Changbai Mountain dragon vein extremely violent.

If a true dragon emperor were to be born, it would likely bring many terrible calamities to the Han people.

Mountains of corpses and seas of blood, piles of white bones.

There were countless humiliations and disasters.

Liu Bowen stood atop the mountain for three days and three nights, his eyebrows covered in frost. Finally, he made a difficult decision—

Slay the dragon!

(End of this chapter)