The imperial tomb felt even more desolate after Qin Shi Huang and Hu Hai departed.
Perhaps because there was no emperor present, everyone felt the surroundings had grown more somber, yet also remarkably ordinary.
Yan Shouyi sighed softly, remarking, "The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was originally built in a geomantically disastrous location. Before, it was entirely suppressed by Qin Shi Huang's soul. Now that he is gone, it has become a normal tomb, merely grander in design than ordinary ancient graves."
Liang Yinqiu felt a hollowness in her heart too, but she said, "Even so, the relics within the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang are enough for us to research for many years." The website Da Feng Xiaoshuo predicted that Liang Yinqiu and her colleagues would be working around the clock for the next few years. Thoroughly researching all these artifacts was a colossal undertaking.
Luo Ning frowned as she looked around, "If you plan to excavate, you should act quickly. The imperial tomb is no longer suppressed by Qin Shi Huang's soul, and the Yin energy is too heavy. The corpses still inside the tomb are very susceptible to reanimation." The mausoleum had now become a natural place for nurturing corpses. If circumstances allowed, Luo Ning would have loved to settle down here.
Wei Changqing agreed with Luo Ning's assessment. "Let's pack up and prepare to leave."
After speaking, Yan Shouyi first walked towards where Huo Ban had died. There lay a solitary, dark green bead – the Sui Hou Pearl. Not long ago, this extraordinary bead had been embedded in Huo Ban's eye socket. Yan Shouyi picked up the Sui Hou Pearl, finding it cool to the touch but sensing no other special properties. "This is the Sui Hou Pearl that the National Teacher desperately wanted. What's so special about it?" Yan Shouyi fiddled with the bead. However, he wouldn't be able to figure it out anytime soon, so he directly placed the Sui Hou Pearl into his satchel.
But the next second, Yan Shouyi paused, unable to help but look at Liang Yinqiu and the others. "If I take this bead, you won't call the police, will you?" Strictly speaking, the Sui Hou Pearl was also a cultural relic, and Yan Shouyi's action was essentially taking a relic openly from a group of archaeologists. To his surprise, Liang Yinqiu and the others looked embarrassed. "This bead is so strange, even if you wanted to give it to us, we wouldn't dare to take it." The Sui Hou Pearl had just been in Huo Ban's eye socket; this thing was inexplicably eerie, and in the eyes of Liang Yinqiu and the others, it had already transcended the category of "cultural relic."
Yan Shouyi coughed a few times, feeling a bit sheepish. Then he pointed to the purple jade crown on the ground and asked, "What about this one?"
"You take it too!" The experts waved their hands repeatedly. "Don't worry, we won't say anything about these two items!"
"It makes me feel like I'm stealing..." Yan Shouyi said with a wry smile, bending down to pick up the purple jade crown and tucking it into his satchel. He then explained, "I'll take the purple jade crown and the Sui Hou Pearl back to study. If I find a way to resolve the issues with them, I'll return them to you then."
"This... Alright, alright." The experts nodded, their eyes a mixture of longing and fear for these two treasures. Strictly speaking, the purple jade crown and the Sui Hou Pearl were not being returned to the experts and professors, nor to the state, but to the nation and its people. The treasures from two thousand years ago held immense cultural research value, and Yan Shouyi had no intention of keeping them for himself. Well... except for the Ancestral Dragon Sword, as Qin Shi Huang had personally entrusted it to Yan Shouyi.
After securing the two treasures, Yan Shouyi recalled what Hu Hai had said. The souls of the Four Great Masters were sealed beneath a peculiar stone in the imperial city. After so many years, their souls were likely depleted, but their legacies remained. To prevent his companions from making a fruitless trip to the imperial tomb, Yan Shouyi asked Liang Yinqiu and the others to wait for them there for a while. Yan Shouyi, along with Agong, Luo Ning, and He Xiping, went to seek the legacy of the peculiar stone.
About an hour later, the four returned safely. Agong and the other two were radiant upon their return, their eyes gleaming with excitement, much like researchers who had made a new discovery, or children eager to unwrap a longed-for gift. Yan Shouyi had indeed led them to the legacy. It was as Hu Hai had said: the souls of the four masters were nearly gone. When Yan Shouyi met the Four Great Masters and explained his intentions, they unhesitatingly decided to pass on their legacies. After all, their bodies were gone, and their souls were about to dissipate. The only thing they could leave behind was their legacy, a form of continuing their existence.
The three who received the legacies were naturally overjoyed. Although folk sects had also advanced with two thousand years of development, and what Luo Ning knew now might not have been possessed by ancient corpse-herders, the skills of ancient corpse-herders also included domains Luo Ning had never encountered. The legacy was like a mighty tree trunk, robust yet short and singular. With each generation, the tree branched out, growing in different directions, forming various schools and reaching higher ground. However, the branches reaching high became slender, far less sturdy and stable than the trunk. The legacies Luo Ning and the other two received from their predecessors were the original skills of folk sects, devoid of frivolous embellishments, returning to the source and focusing on the most practical abilities. It would likely take some time to fully digest these legacies.
The only pity was that there was nothing to pass down from the soul of the Gu Master. Firstly, none of the four practiced Gu-taming, and secondly, Gu-taming required significant time, which none of them had the time or energy to cultivate a new exquisite skill. Thus, the legacy of the Gu Master was broken. Yan Shouyi felt immense regret. He had heard from his grandfather that folk sects in the past were a vibrant scene, with countless schools and an era of astonishing genius. But as time went on, many schools lost their lineages and gradually faded from the historical stage. And this time, Yan Shouyi had witnessed the breaking of a legacy firsthand.
Regardless, the visit to the imperial tomb had been quite rewarding for everyone. They returned to the banks of the Mercury River to reunite with the group. When they regrouped, Xue Kai had already dealt with the corpses of the people brought by Chu Wu, to avoid any unnecessary trouble for subsequent archaeological teams. Finally, everyone concluded their tasks and withdrew from the imperial city, preparing to leave the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.
"Finally heading back!" Long Feicheng quietly clutched his pocket, his eyes gleaming with symbols of money. His pockets were full of luminous pearls that had fallen from the sky; who knew how much they would fetch? Weng Qianxiang looked at him expectantly and whispered, "Brother Long, given our relationship, are you willing to part with a few luminous pearls?" Long Feicheng glanced at Weng Qianxiang with a cold expression and said, "Are we that familiar? What's your surname?"
"You... Holy crap!" Weng Qianxiang pointed at Long Feicheng, speechless. This guy really turned his back on him as soon as he said it!