Walking by the Abyss on Thin Ice

Chapter 26: Tiandaoyuan Gelong

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One man and four foxes held the rope and were taken to the sky. After a while, they landed on a cliff. One side of the cliff was as steep as a blade, but the other side was a gentle slope with a gurgling stream flowing down the slope.

This stream merges with streams flowing from other peaks at the foot of the mountain and becomes a river that flows from west to east into the valley.

Su Yun had never been here before, and he dared not move. He kept asking, "What did you see? What did you see?"

He has never been here.

For the blind, every blind person has a map in his mind. Only the area where he lives is lit up, while other places are dark and chaotic.

The terrain of Zanglong Mausoleum is steep and difficult to climb. This is the first time Su Yun has come here. It is clearly an autumn afternoon and it is still early, but in his mind, the surroundings are dark and full of unknowns.

He tried to open his eyes wide, but could see nothing.

He could only feel that there was a prehistoric beast crawling in the unknown darkness, ferocious and terrifying.

He was frightened and asked several times, but no one around answered him.

Su Yun asked several times again. After a while, Hua Hu was the first to come to his senses and murmured, "Xiao Yun, we saw a dragon... There really is a dragon here!"

Hearing his voice, Su Yun's heart finally calmed down.

Flower Fox described the geography of Dragon Burial Mausoleum in detail, helping Su Yun quickly construct the geography of Dragon Burial Mausoleum in his mind. The other fox demons listened quietly on the side without interrupting. If Flower Fox missed something, Hu Buping would not help but add a few words.

This is a habit developed over many years.

Ever since Hua Hu and Su Yun became classmates, Hua Hu had been telling Su Yun about the geography of the area around Tianmen Town, and then taking him around. Only then did Su Yun become familiar with the geography of the surrounding area and avoid getting lost.

They have the best friendship.

The man and the fox talked and listened to each other, and soon Su Yun figured out the general geography of Dragon Burial Mausoleum, and the geographical map in his mind had a rough outline.

There is indeed a dragon in the Dragon Burial Tomb. Just now he sensed a prehistoric giant beast crawling in the darkness, and he was indeed not wrong.

The Dragon Burial Tomb is worthy of its name, as there is a dragon buried here. However, the Dragon Burial Tomb is not worthy of its name, as there is no dragon's tomb here.

The Dragon Burial Tomb is a long earthen slope, two or three feet high and about a hundred feet long, covered with trees and thorns.

The dragon that fell from the sky crawled here from the Fallen Dragon Valley and died of his injuries. The nearby residents probably just buried him hastily without building a tomb for him.

After an unknown amount of weathering, the dragon's bones emerged from the slope, mostly exposed.

Especially the dragon's skull, which was almost completely exposed and very huge. There was even a tree growing in the eye sockets of the skull that required two people to hug.

Although the trees in the Dragon Burial Mausoleum are very dense, the strange thing is that there are no birds or animals here, not even a single insect can be seen!

Walking here, one gets a creepy feeling in the heart, as if some extremely ferocious beast might jump out and rip one rip open at any time.

"There is a house next to the Dragon Burial Mausoleum."

Huahu continued to describe the scenery of the Dragon Burial Mausoleum, saying: "The house is made of wood and stone. There are two buildings with seven rooms. The three-room building is on the east side of the Dragon Burial Mausoleum, and the four-room building is on the west side. The house must have been abandoned for a long time. It is very dilapidated and the wood has almost corroded. There are some stone tablets on the mountain, as well as on the surrounding mountains. Some of the stone tablets have fallen down."

"Thank you, Brother Hua."

Su Yun constructed the shape of the seven houses in his mind and tilted his head to ask, "There are few people here, why are there houses?"

Flower Fox was also quite puzzled: "Not to mention that there are few human traces, there are no animal traces. Only bones of this dragon are left, and it still looks very fierce. Why would someone choose to live here?"

Su Yun's heart moved slightly. It was impossible for this dead dragon to be buried next to someone else's village, so the house could only have been built later.

And since it was built near the Dragon Mausoleum, there is only one possibility for it to be built, other than guarding the mausoleum.

"Someone wanted to steal the dragon's corpse. But the dragon's corpse was too big, and they couldn't dig it out in a short time, so they built a house here."

Su Yun pondered, "The people nearby have no relationship with this dragon, so it is impossible for them to guard the tomb for him. Therefore, they can only come here to steal the dragon's corpse."

Hu Buping said quickly: "The dragon's body is clearly here, why didn't they steal it?"

"Maybe it's because it's too big and they can't move it. Or maybe they died suddenly while digging up the dragon's corpse."

Flower Fox pondered, "After all, the Earth God said that a dragon's spirit flew out and rescued the entire village for food. After the dragon died, most likely his spirit is still guarding his body."

Su Yun nodded. Hua Hu's guess made sense.

They walked down the hillside carefully and headed towards the Dragon Burial Mausoleum. Su Yun followed Hua Hu cautiously, trying to keep his steps steady. He said, "We should not try to dig out the dragon bones, nor can we take anything away. We should just go to those houses and take a look. I heard from Mr. Shui Jing that the spirits of some powerful people will turn into ghosts and gods, which are very vicious. However, ghosts are afraid of sunlight and will not appear during the day. Therefore, we must leave before the sun sets!"

The four fox demons looked at each other. Qingqiu Yue and Li Xiaofan hurried to cover Hu Buping's mouth. Hu Buping whimpered a few times and thought to himself, "The ghosts and gods in Tianmen Town are more vicious than dragons. They even appear in the daytime!"

One man and four foxes came to the Dragon Burial Mausoleum and walked into the first house.

The house had four rooms, with scattered bones and ornaments left on the ground after clothes had decayed into ashes.

Su Yun squatted down and searched for a while, pondering: "Judging from the state of the fallen corpses, they must have suddenly encountered an unexpected change and hurriedly fled from the house. However, the thing chasing them was too fast, and they died before they could escape from the house."

Huahu also discovered something: "Their backs, ribs and spines were broken, and the cut surface was oblique. It should be cut from their backs with an extremely sharp weapon. There were three such weapons in total, and they cut at the same time. The wounds were almost parallel. This person was cut into four pieces..."

Su Yun felt around and said, "There is no such weapon. This is a wound caused by a claw."

Huahu laughed and said, "Xiaoyun, how could a monster with extremely sharp claws appear in the house with these people? Although this house is big, it can't accommodate such a huge monster! Unless..."

"Except there is no entity."

Su Yun said: "Spirit has no entity. If it is a dragon claw, then it is possible."

Huahu frowned and said, "Let's go inside the house and take a look!"

What puzzled them was that the room was full of desks with messy writing brushes, inks, papers and inkstones placed on them. It did not look like the room of a tomb robber, but rather the room of a great scholar who was well-read in poetry and books!

It is regrettable that the pen tips here have rotted and the paper has long turned into mud.

"They are not here to steal the dragon corpse!"

Su Yun suddenly said: "They are scholars who seek knowledge through investigation of things!"

Hua Hu was startled for a moment, then came to his senses: "Yes! When Mr. Shui Jing taught us the Crocodile Dragon Roar, he took us to the Crocodile Dragon Pond to observe the crocodile dragons, their forms, habits, and movements. We used the Honglu Transmutation technique to stimulate our own vitality and blood to simulate the crocodile dragons, and visualized the crocodile dragons with our self-consciousness. Mr. Shui Jing said that this is called the study of things to gain knowledge. Through observation and experimentation, we study the essence and principles of things, and thus gain knowledge."

The other three little foxes had also heard Mr. Shui Jing's lectures and immediately recalled them.

Qingqiu Yue said quickly, "Mr. Shuijing said that wealthy official schools often organize scholars to find the divine beasts to be visualized when learning a certain skill or magical power, and observe and study them. Could it be that some scholars came to observe this dragon?"

Li Xiaofan looked at the corpses scattered all over the ground and frowned, "They are from Shuofang City? How could they die here?"

Su Yun found a jade token under the rotten clothes of a corpse. There were words on the token. He felt it carefully and said, "They are from an official school called Tiandaoyuan."

The fox demons came forward and saw that although there was dirt on the jade plate, it was pure white and had not been contaminated. It was obviously carved from priceless jade.

On the front of the jade plaque are the three characters "Tian Dao Yuan", surrounded by cloud and thunder patterns, while on the back is a half-opened scroll carved, which is very exquisite.

"Is there an official school in Shuofang City called Tiandaoyuan? It's a very impressive name."

Hua Hu said, "The jade token is of good quality. Maybe we can sell it for a few five-zhu coins. Let's find a few more! We will definitely need money when we go into the city in the future!"

The fox demons searched everywhere and found several jade tablets, all of which were from the Tiandao Academy, but they were all broken. Only the one found by Su Yun was intact.

Finding nothing else, they left and headed for the second house.

The house is on the other side of the dragon's tail. The two houses are at the head and the tail, and they should be responsible for observing the dragon from different directions.

A few hundred steps away from the dragon's tail is a sunken valley. The flower fox leaned over to take a look and saw huge scratches on both walls of the valley!

Each scratch went deep into the stone wall and was several feet long. The stone looked as if it had been cut by the sharpest knife, which was shocking.

They guessed correctly. The dragon that fell from the sky landed in the Fallen Dragon Valley, struggled and crawled with its last bit of strength, crawled here, and then died.

"What could have caused such a divine dragon to be injured and die here?" Huahu murmured.

They arrived outside the second house and were about to go in when they suddenly saw a man in black limping towards them. The four foxes screamed in unison and took defensive stances.

"Snake Senior."

Su Yun's heart was slightly moved, and he bowed and said, "Senior invited us to watch the ceremony last night. We watched for a long time and gained a lot. Thank you for your care."

Huahu was shocked and whispered, "Xiaoyun, do you mean he is the one who eats for the whole village? Why did he change his appearance?"