Open a Clinic to Cultivate Myself Chapter 301 The Dragon-Searching Mnemonic

Six men advanced in the col. Braving the wind, they were cloaked in the clear cool light of the moon and stars.

The man leading the group was called Zeng Xunlong. He was a famous grave robber. The other five were his disciples, following him around the country to raid tombs. They made up a team.

One hour later, Zeng Xunlong and his five disciples arrived at a col. Flanking it were the grayish slopes of a mountain. Right ahead was a towering snowy peak.

The wind had died down here.

“We're reaching the place. Yan Zong, pour some powder on the ground,” Zeng Xunlong said.

The youth whose hand had been crushed by Ning Tao took out a sack from his backpack. He tipped the sack and walked rapidly ahead. As he walked, he sprinkled powder. He was Yan Zong, the cruelest of Zeng Xunlong's disciples. He was a deft worker. The powder he was sprinkling was not incense ash or lime, but phosphor.

After sprinkling phosphor, they could shine a flashlight on the ground and know if anyone was following them.

“Let's go.” Zeng Xunlong led his five disciples to the end of the col towards the snowy peak.

Outside the col, a man, a woman and a dog arrived in their pursuit.

Just when they were about to enter the col, the nose of the Howling Celestial Dog twitched. “Goodness gracious me, they have sprinkled something on the ground.”

“Sprinkled what?” Ning Tao asked.

The Howling Celestial Dog replied, “I don't know. Smells like… some fluorescent tubes.”

It did not know what phosphor was. But it could still distinguish the smell of fluorescent tubes, after rummaging through so many garbage bins. So it could still describe the odor.

Ning Tao said, “It's phosphor powder. Right now, we can't know if they have other accomplices meeting them. Let's climb the mountain slope.”

At the bottom of the col.

Zeng Xunlong halted by an open plain. He stretched out a hand.

Yan Zong handed him a Dragon-Searching Plate. The other disciple, Wang Xing, was awaiting his orders, the Dragon-searching Ruler ready in his hands.

Zeng Xunlong advanced with his Dragon-Searching Plate. He kept shifting positions. As he walked, he recited, “To locate the Dragon, one must observe the girding mountains. Each gird represents a mountain pass. If a thousand-pound lock is latching its entrance, a noble lord must be residing there. If there is no doorway before one's eyes, it must be the abode of a deity or immortal. Before excavating, one must first make sacrificial offerings. Then a passage of water will run through the mystical entrance.”

“Master, the Dragon-Searching Mnemonic you taught us doesn't have the last two lines. Is this…” Yan Zong's face showed complete bafflement.

Zeng Xunlong said, “That was an ordinary lord's grave. This is a deity's temple, the tomb of an immortal. All of you are honored to be accompanying me for this deal. You must be reaping good karma from your earlier lives. It doesn't matter if you remember the last two lines of this mnemonic or not. Most probably, none of you will encounter this again.”

The disciples all started to nod, indicating that they had learned much.

Zeng Xunlong stopped by a mountain wall. He kicked away the accumulated snow under his feet, revealing a grayish black rock. There were strange patterns resembling human blood vessels on the rock surface. He scrutinized them and then put his Dragon-Searching Plate to one side. He took out a yellowed, ancient map from his backpack and studied it.

His disciples also drew near. Zeng Xunlong rarely did the job himself. He would only come if they were raiding a major tomb. His presence meant that his disciples could learn much from him.

On that ancient map were drawn undulating mountains. There was a secret river within these mountain peaks. A palace-like edifice was situated in one of those mountain peaks. A few characters in ancient script were written beside that building, “Temple within the Mountains.”

Zeng Xunlong seemed to have quickly verified something. He beckoned to a disciple. “Kneel on this rock and make nine kowtows on it.”

The disciple knelt down as instructed. He kowtowed obediently on the rock.

Bam, bam, bam…

Zeng Xunlong suddenly drew out a hunting knife from his waist belt. He held it in his right hand, skirting his hand around that disciple's neck. Then he brutally slit his disciple's throat from the front. At the same time, he tugged that disciple's neck back. He raised his knee to keep that disciple in position, not allowing him to move.

Blood spurted out from his disciple's slit throat, splashing onto that grayish rock.

The other disciples were all terrified, stepping back hastily.

Zeng Xunlong gave a low growl. “Don't panic! That last two lines I recited aren't for nothing.” “'If there is no doorway before one's eyes, it must be the abode of a deity or immortal. Before excavating, one must first make sacrificial offerings. Then a passage of water will run through the mystical entrance.' Although I claimed that we are entering a temple, it really is a deity's tomb. Before excavating it, we must first make sacrificial offerings. Otherwise, we can't enter. Someone must be sacrificed. Once I clinch this business deal, none of you will need to worry about money for the rest of your life.”

The disciples recovered somewhat. It was not anyone of them who had been killed, and they would get more money after his death. This was something they could accept.

The disciple whose throat had been slit struggled twice and his spasm subsided. Fresh blood spurted out from his throat onto the rock. The strange patterns on it started to undulate. Strangely, a lot of blood had trickled down, yet the patterns on the rock were still drawing in blood. His blood seemed to be flowing to another place. Unfortunately, they could not tell where.

On the mountain slope to the left of the col, Ning Tao was quietly watching Zeng Xunlong kill his disciple and release his blood. He could not hear Zeng Xunlong's voice, but the Howling Celestial Dog by his side acted as a broadcaster for him and Qing Zhui.

“'If there is no doorway before one's eyes, it must be the abode of a deity or immortal. Before excavating, one must first make sacrificial offerings. Then a passage of water will run through the mystical entrance.' Although I claimed that we are entering a temple, it is really a deity's tomb…” Even an ordinary dog could hear underground tremors before an earthquake and warn its master, let alone the Howling Celestial Dog refined by the Heavenly Hound tripod. It could not only detect Zeng Xunlong's voice, but even a fart released by his disciple clearly.

The expression in Qing Zhui's eyes was cold. “This guy is so ruthless. He even killed his own disciple as a sacrificial offering. We won't need to brood about killing him later.”

Ning Tao said, “The tomb of an immortal. Looks like some cultivating immortal or immortal demon was buried in this mountain. I wonder who he was. After we enter, don't be in such a hurry to fight. There will surely be many traps or formations inside. Let these grave robbers be the ones to test the waters.”

“OK,” Qing Zhui assented.

Ning Tao's heart told himself quietly, “I didn't expect an immortal's tomb to be here. Could Zhu Hongyu have come here for this tomb?”

At this moment, Zeng Xunlong kicked away his dead disciple.

Snap, snap, snap…

A series of mechanism was being triggered in the mountain wall. The wall soon sank down. It was not actually a real wall, but a huge boulder measuring tens of meters high and just as wide.

In the twinkling of an eye, the pitch-black entrance of a cave appeared. It could only accommodate one person.

“You, go in. The rest follow him.” Zeng Xunlong gave his orders.

The chosen disciple had no choice but to creep into the entrance. He shone his flashlight and walked in. The other three disciples followed behind. Zeng Xunlong was the last to enter. He dragged in the corpse of the sacrificed disciple.

To the left of the mountain slope, a man, a woman and a dog rapidly advanced towards the cave in the col.

The bright yellow Native Field Dog mumbled as it ran, “ABCD… EF… SB…”

This was how a top student learned.

Ning Tao, Qing Zhui and the Howling Celestial Dog entered the cave. The huge boulder behind them slowly began to rise, sealing the cave entrance. Ning Tao did not feel the least bit of stress. Even if they could not locate the exit, or find the mechanism to unblock the entrance, he could use the convenient door to return. If this cave proved suitable, he could make it his second cave mansion.

The body of the youth whose throat was slit was abandoned by the side of this narrow passageway. Blood stench permeated the air.

Ning Tao did not hasten to follow. He drew out his Blade of the Solar Eclipse and stabbed it into the corpse's mouth, injecting spiritual power. Voices began to hover in his mind.

“Don't kill me… don't…”

“Mom, I'm going on a faraway trip. After concluding this business deal, I will take you to a city. You can live your remaining days there in happy leisure…”

“Master, 100 million in commission! Who is this generous guy…”

These voices were remnant memories. One could regard them as brain waves. Since his brain cells had not completely died, the Blade of the Solar Eclipse could activate them using spiritual power and absorb their brain waves.

This youth had just died and his brain was not entirely dead. All sorts of information gushed in a steady stream into Ning Tao's brain. Although he could only hear voices, it was enough to inform him about the situation.

Someone had paid these grave robbers a hefty commission and provided them with a map. Unfortunately, Zeng Xunlong did not tell him who this client was. To put it bluntly, these disciples thought they were here for the money, but were actually sacrificial fodder. Even if they managed to escape alive, they could not guarantee Zeng Xunlong would not silence them.

“Let's go.” After collecting the brain waves from the corpse, Ning Tao drew out his Blade of the Solar Eclipse. He was leading the trio, holding on to his cell phone and using the weak flashlight from its screen to light the way.

He had wanted to refine a flashlight but lacked the spiritual materials to. When he had enough, the matter would slip from his mind. Only when he needed a flashlight would he remember this. He reminded himself that he must spend some time after moving his clinic to refine a cultivating flashlight. He would put it in his small medicine chest for emergency use.

The passageway was a tunnel excavated in the mountain wall. Its entire structure resembled that of a miner's tunnel. Some parts were supported by dressed stones to prevent the sand and stones from caving in. Both the tunnel and the dressed stones propping it up seemed to be hacked using swords or axes. They looked very bizarre.

Was there really an immortal here?

“Qing Zhui, back during the Ming or Qing Dynasties, have you ever encountered an immortal, or an immortal demon?” As they walked, Ning Tao asked.

Qing Zhui replied, “I have heard my sister talk about them. She said that immortals and immortal demons had all mysteriously disappeared. Nowadays, very few people know the magic arts and nobody can refine magic tools. There are no longer any immortals or immortal demons in existence.”

“Have you ever seen a flying sword?”

“No.”

Ning Tao felt quite disappointed. As a practitioner, although he followed a different cultivating path, he still had a strong liking for flying swords. If he had a flying sword, he could soar on it beside a Boeing 747. How imposing would that look!

The tunnel became narrower and narrower. One could hear the faint burbling of water.

Suddenly, from before them came the echoes of someone speaking. “We've reached the mystical entrance!”

Chapter end